Internal Stuggles
by Ducky27
Summary: It is to my great grief, that I must announce that five of our students were killed in the explosion. Jacob Applegate, Lisa Hughes, Neville Longbottom, Dinah Rosenfeld and Ginny Weasley. Ginny and Draco are on the run for their lives, but they're not alon
1. Ginny's Death

Disclaimer: This does not belong to me. I long for it to, so that I can make the characters obey my twisted wishes, but it doesn't. I make no money from this.  
  
Many thanks to my Beta, Dom, who corrects all my silly mistakes.  
  
***  
  
Chapter One  
  
The Weasley family, joined by Harry Potter and Hermione Granger sat in the Leaky Cauldron, drinking their drinks. Harry and Ron were excitedly talking about the spectacular Quidditch game between the Chudley Cannons and The Bromley Badgers that they had heard on the Wizard's wireless station. Ginny and Hermione were talking about school.  
  
"Well, fifth year is a very important year of course, with your owls. Although there are no major exams in sixth year, it is a very hard year." Hermione was saying.  
  
"And the way he pulled of that goal against Flanders was amazing!" Ron interrupted.  
  
"Oh for god's sake Ron, you didn't even see it!" Hermione snapped. Harry pulled a face that made Ron laugh, and they continued to talk.  
  
"You know what? I think I'm going to pop into Flourish and Blotts, see if I can get that book on Animagus'." Ginny said.  
  
"But that's not on you list." Ron pointed out, checking her list.  
  
"I know, but it'd be a good read, and I haven't got my gift for being made a prefect yet." Ginny quickly checked with her mother who nodded, thankful that another broomstick wouldn't be demanded, "I'll meet you at Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour in about fifteen minutes, ok?"  
  
"Ok, see ya Gin." Ron called at his sisters disappearing back.  
  
"Well, it's good to know that Ginny's serious about her studies." Hermione said, looking quite pleased with herself.  
  
"Yeah, I hope she's not gonna turn out like Percy, being a stuck up idiot who won't believe his own family." Ron muttered darkly.  
  
"Now Ron, don't speak about your brother like that." Arthur Weasley scolded, glancing at his wife. She had a far away distant look, one she always adopted when her third son was mentioned.  
  
"Well, I wouldn't if it wasn't true." Ron continued, although so quietly that only Harry heard.  
  
"Hey, let's go get some ice-cream." Harry said, trying to break the dark mood. Hermione nodded eagerly, and Ron and his parents agreed.  
  
"They've got a new flavour." Ron said after a moment of walking, "Mushroom soup."  
  
Harry and Hermione laughed, and the dark mood was lifted. Harry and Ron continued their discussion on the Quidditch match, and Hermione tried to remind them of the importance of school.  
  
They reached the Ice-Cream Parlour and Harry ordered the mushroom soup flavour as a dare. They all sat down and started to enjoy themselves. They had been there five minutes when they heard the explosion.  
  
"What on earth?" Mr Weasley shouted.  
  
"Arthur!" Mrs Weasley screamed "its Flourish and Blotts!"  
  
The Weasley's ran at full speed, followed by Harry and Hermione. The air was filled with screams, and people were running away from the bookshop. Ron, being the tallest and fittest, pushed his way to the front. Already officials were apparating from all over, and one tried to step in front of Ron.  
  
"Sorry son, you can't go in there." He said, trying to calm the struggling boy.  
  
"Get off me!" Ron shouted "My sister! Ginny!"  
  
"MacDougal!" Mr Weasley called "My daughter's in there!"  
  
The man loosened his grip on Ron for just a moment to turn and look, but that was all the boy needed. He pulled away and ran straight into the shop, which had purple smoke billowing from its windows.  
  
"Ginny!" He called, from inside he heard gasps and screams, but had no idea what it was that was frightening people. All that mattered to him was to find Ginny.  
  
"Ron!" He heard Harry shout "Ron! You have to get out of there!"  
  
"Ron!" That was Hermione. She sounded like she was crying. Something was going on outside.  
  
He stumbled over something, and fell to his knees. Looking over to see what it was, he had to hold back vomit.  
  
It was Neville, or at least a part of him. All Ron could see clearly was the head and a mess of things below it. He looked away before he could take anything else in. he crawled onwards, not knowing if he could stand. His hand came down on something soft and dry. He looked down, and felt a sob form in his throat. It was a clump of strawberry red hair.  
  
Blackness crept into his vision, and Ron realised that he was passing out. A moment before he was completely out, he heard movement at the back of the shop, and then nothing.  
  
***  
  
Ron woke up in a soft bed in a white room. At first the bright light hurt his eyes, but soon his eyes adjusted, and he recognized his surroundings. He was in St Mungo's, the wizarding hospital.  
  
"Mum?" He called, "Dad?"  
  
"Ron? He's awake! Ron?" It was Hermione, her bushy hair filling his vision.  
  
"Hermi?" He asked, dazed.  
  
"Ron, its ok, your mum and dad are here." She assured him.  
  
"Ginny?" He asked. Hermione's eyes filled with tears and she looked away. Ron knew exactly what that meant, and he felt tears falling down his own cheeks "Oh Gin."  
  
"I'm sorry Ron." Someone said. Not Hermione. Harry?  
  
"Harry?" He asked. The bespeckled face came into view, and he was also crying.  
  
"Where are mum and dad?"  
  
"They're outside with Bill and the twins, Charlie's on his way." Harry told him.  
  
"Can I see them?" Ron asked.  
  
"Sure, one moment." Hermione disappeared, and he heard some whispering.  
  
"Harry, help me sit up." He ordered. His friend's arm was instantly lifting him, supporting him. Soon he was up straight, "Thanks."  
  
Now that he was sitting up he could see that he had a room of his own, and that made him think. All that had happened was that he had passed out with shock, surely that did not warrant such extremities.  
  
"It's because of. what happened." Harry explained, "They were going to wake you up, but then Dumbledore said to let you rest until everything was sorted out. And the room's because they thought you wouldn't want people to see if you. you know."  
  
"Cried?" Ron asked. His friend nodded, "I want to cry; only I can't make myself believe it."  
  
"I know, it's just. we saw her, only five minutes before. And she was so happy." Harry looked away, hiding his tears. It wasn't like when they thought she had died in their second year. He had been sorry, because it hadn't been fair, and because Ron was so upset, but now she was family, more family than the Dursley's. He loved all the Weasley's now, and Ginny's death now made him want to die himself.  
  
"Did they find.?" Ron couldn't finish the sentence.  
  
"No, or if they did they didn't tell me or Hermione."  
  
"Then maybe she's not dead!" Ron's face was now lit up "Before I passed out I heard someone at the back of the shop. Maybe she got scared, and ran away! She might be alive!"  
  
"Ron, no." The look on his friend's face was unbearable for Harry. The look of pure, cruel hope. Hope that would continue to exist for years to come but was completely pointless, because everyone else knew that there wasn't any hope.  
  
"But she wasn't dead before, when everyone thought she was, and we looked for her, and we saved her life. If we look for her now, before it's too late, we can find her, maybe. She might still be alive!" Ron's face was too much.  
  
"Ron, there is no chance, and deep down you know it. It'll just hurt more if you let yourself believe this. Ginny. She's dead, I wish she wasn't but she is." Harry took his friends arm, but he pulled away.  
  
"So it's only convenient to save Ginny when you want to, is that it? When you can be the hero?" Ron snapped, but instantly regretted it. Harry's eyes filled with tears, "I'm sorry.I."  
  
"It's ok." Harry said, and then he pulled Ron into a hug, because that was the only way he could hide his own pain. Ron's body shook as sobs racked through him.  
  
When Mr And Mrs Weasley walked in with three of their sons and their almost adopted daughter, that's how they found the two boys, locked into a hug, trying to find the ability to cope in each other, which neither of them had.  
  
***  
  
Where was she? What happened? Was this nothing? It couldn't be nothing, nothing didn't exist. But she couldn't see, or hear, or smell or touch or taste. All her feelings had gone; there was nothing but the impossible nothingness.  
  
Hello? No, she couldn't speak either, or if she could she couldn't hear it. What had happened?  
  
Flourish and Blotts, talking to Neville. He was asking her about Dean, if they were still going out. It was embarrassing sometimes, how sweet and obvious he was. But Neville's eyes had grown wide with fear, and a hand had clamped around her mouth, pulling her backwards. The person who had grabbed her hissed something, and a purple light had sparked from his wand. Then she had heard an explosion, so close that it could have been right next to her. Wait, it had been. Of course, that's what the purple light had been. And then there had been a burning sensation at the back of her neck, and she watched as a clump of her hair fell to the ground. She remembered her irrational thought at the time:  
  
My hair will grow uneven now.  
  
And then she has seen someone, someone familiar. Ron! Ron, help me!  
  
But he had been on the floor, looking at her hair, falling, even though he was already on his hands and knees.  
  
"Did you cast the mark?" Her captor asked, but not to her. Someone else.  
  
"Yes! Now let's go!" then being dragged somewhere, and knocked unconscious.  
  
And waking up here. But was this waking up? Maybe she was asleep.  
  
Maybe it was time to think.  
  
***  
  
Ron spent the day in St Mungo's before being told that he was allowed to go home. They flooed back, and Mrs Weasley instantly made herself busy by making everyone a cup of tea. At one point she stopped, trembled, but then continued.  
  
"Dad?" Ron said quietly, "When I was inside the shop, I heard people screaming. What happened?"  
  
Arthur coughed, and indicated towards the living room. Fred and George had gone straight up to their room, so it was only Bill, Charlie, Ron, Harry and Hermione who followed him into the living room. Once there he pulled out The Daily Prophet. The article read 'Seven killed in Death Eater attack' and the photo showed the bookshop, smoke billowing out, and a huge glittering skull hovering above it.  
  
"The Dark Mark." Ron sighed.  
  
"I'm sorry." Muttered Bill, standing up "I can't."  
  
He walked out of the room and headed up to his old bedroom. Charlie looked at his dad for approval before following his older brother. After a moment Mr Weasley coughed, stood up and went into the kitchen to comfort his wife, who Ron could hear crying.  
  
"What are we gonna do?" He asked finally, not to anyone in particular.  
  
"I wish I knew Ron, but I don't." Hermione answered.  
  
***  
  
"What's happened so far?"  
  
"Not much. She's only tried to talk once, but she's not stupid, she realised that she couldn't."  
  
"Do we have any idea how long this is going to take?"  
  
"If she's weak willed, a week at most, is she's not. it could take years for all we know, this is untried."  
  
"Well, we're trying it now, so take note of everything. By the way, how are we supposed to know when it works?"  
  
"Well, there'll be a definite change in M-waves, as they are two different people. Other than that, I have no idea. For all we know, she could change shape!"  
  
"I very much doubt that."  
  
"Well, of course, it's unlikely. What I'm saying is that we have no idea. It's a Muggle thing. Who knows how it'll affect a witch?"  
  
"We'll know soon. What do Muggles call it?"  
  
"Sensory Deprivation. The idea is that she'll take refuge inside herself and find him. Of course, she might just go mad."  
  
"Well, keep me posted, and I'll tell our Master what's important. But you must tell me everything. I want to know if she so much as sneezes."  
  
"Well, it's actually impossible for her to."  
  
"Don't be deliberately stupid."  
  
***  
  
The trip to Hogwarts this year was a glum one. One or Mr Weasley's workmates had been kind enough to get Ron, Harry and Hermione their school things, to save anyone the ordeal of having to go back to Diagon Alley. After the clean up squad had been through, the street had been reopened for the public. Not surprisingly, many people had kept away.  
  
They shared the compartment with Luna Lovegood, who had joined them shortly after the train had left the station.  
  
"If she even mentions the Ginny and conspiracy in the same sentence I swear I'll." Ron began, but Luna did no such thing. After apologising to Ron for his loss, she'd got out a book and spent the rest of the journey in silence.  
  
Upon arriving at Hogwarts, the four of them huddled into a carriage, and Ron and Hermione looked glumly at the Thestrals.  
  
"They're not really ugly." Hermione said after a while. She had been surprised that she'd seen them, but she said nothing. After a while she concluded that seeing the act had been enough, and after further though she decided that she had definitely seen death on that day. But she said none of this to her three companions.  
  
"No, they're not." Ron agreed, "Ginny said that she hadn't thought they'd be."  
  
Hermione instantly regretted bringing up the conversation. Not knowing what else to do, she placed her hand on his, and he smiled weakly back at her.  
  
They were ushered into the Great Hall, and said goodbye to Luna as she joined the rest of the Ravenclaws. They sat next to Seamus and Dean, the latter looking just as depressed as them.  
  
After a moments silence, Ron turned to Dean and patted him on the shoulder.  
  
"She talked about you a lot over the holiday." He said, "She said she missed you."  
  
"Thanks. I'm really sorry." Dean nodded, and then turned away, trying to save face. Seamus gave Ron a sympathetic look, and then went to comfort his friend.  
  
All while this was going on, the new students were being sorted. The Gryffindor table was now much more crowded. Ron looked round the hall and noticed that many other people were looking depressed.  
  
"Ahem." Called Dumbledore, standing up, "I'm sorry, but we'll be starting this year on a much more sombre note then most. As you all know, there was an incident in Diagon alley. It is to my great grief, that I must announce that five of our students were killed in the explosion. Jacob Applegate, Lisa Hughes, Neville Longbottom, Dinah Rosenfeld and Ginny Weasley. I think it would be appropriate of we held a moment's silence, starting now."  
  
The hush that had fallen over the crowd when Dumbledore had begun his speech now extended over the hall in what seemed to Ron like a roar. He could hear the silence ringing in his ears, and he couldn't tell whether he approved or not. He knew that part of this silence was in honour of Ginny, and that many of the people in the hall were remembering her face, her smile, and her laugh. But how can a silence be enough to remember a girl whose whole life had been noise? A girl who had learnt to shout extra loud she that she could be heard over her brothers? Remembering Ginny with silence wasn't what she would have wanted. She would have wanted laughter. But, truthfully, Ron couldn't have laughed at that moment, not for a million Galleons.  
  
The silence ended, and Dumbledore made his usual announcements. Ron looked over at his friends, and saw that Hermione was wiping her eyes with her sleeve, and Dean was fiercely biting his lip, and Ron could almost hear Ginny scornfully telling him that he's ruin his mouth like that. He could hear her say, "Do you really want me to kiss that scabby lip?" And then she'd laugh. And he would have had to say something like "You're not doing any kissing" And she'd frown at him, and tell him to shove off, and he'd hug her, and try to keep her a baby forever.  
  
And now she was. She'd never grow up, never get married and have children. Never know how much he loved her.  
  
"Ron." Hermione whispered. He looked around, and noticed with astonishment that there was food on the table, and that it was nearly all gone. The food had come and he's missed it, but it didn't really bother him. He really didn't feel like eating.  
  
When he and Harry stepped into their dorm room, they faltered for a moment. Instead of the five beds that they had always been used to, there was now only four. They had found out early on that Neville had also died in the attack, but his bed being missing brought that sharply into focus.  
  
Seamus and Dean came in a moment after, and they also faltered. Then Dean moved to the open space where the bed had been, and walked round in a circle.  
  
"Do you think that if I stand here long enough, I'll get something, like a vision?" He asked, his voice choked. Seamus shrugged, and moved to his own bed, rummaging through his things. Harry followed his example, but Ron remained at the threshold of the room.  
  
"Come on Ron, you need some sleep." Harry said. The tall boy sighed and nodded, changing into his bedclothes. It had been strange, but at that moment where he looked at his room, it had occurred to him that if he just turned around and left, when he came back the world would be normal again.  
  
It won't, He told himself; it'll never be normal again.  
  
***  
  
The boredom was the worst part. The complete and utter lack of anything to do. It overwhelmed her, and made her forget her fear, her anger. All that really mattered now was doing something to occupy her mind.  
  
At first she had fantasized about someone coming to rescue her. Someone would suddenly place a hand on her arm and she'd be able to feel things again.  
  
Sometimes it was Ron, and that made sense. He was the last person she had seen, and he had always been her favourite brother. Other times it was Dean, smiling at her and pulling her into a kiss. Or Harry, his green eyes twinkling.  
  
But more often than not it was her parents. She could imagine her father bursting into the open space of nothingness that was her prison. Suddenly there would be an up and down again, and she'd be able to move, and shout. Her father would be sweating slightly, as he always did when he was scared. He'd have a worried look on his face, but it would disappear once he saw her. Following him would be her mother, and her face would be twisted into a comical mask of rage. Sometimes, in her mind, her mother was brandishing a frying pan like a deadly weapon.  
  
And they'd take her into their arms, and shower her with kisses, and take her away from this, and place her into her cosy bed, and stay with her all night in case she got nightmares.  
  
But the more she waited for this to happen, the more desperate she became. In her mid she fixated on one spot that she imagined was the door, and stared at it constantly, willing it to open.  
  
WHY! She screamed, hating that no sound came out. And then a thought came to her.  
  
Maybe this was hell. Maybe she had died in the explosion, and her punishment for what had happened in her first year was this, eternal nothingness.  
  
I'm going to go mad. She thought to herself. I'm going to go mad and I'm looking forward to it, because I can't stand this any more. Anything to make this more bearable.  
  
Taking a deep, unnecessary breath, she closed her eyes, and reached down inside of her. What she found was.  
  
***  
  
"Lucius! It's happening!"  
  
***  
  
Darkness.  
  
*** "Lucius! I'm not kidding!"  
  
***  
  
Evil.  
  
***  
  
"Lucius, damn you! Get over here now!"  
  
***  
  
Him.  
  
***  
  
Please Review. I will continue only if I get good reviews. 


	2. Enter The dragon

Disclaimer: Doesn't belong to me, never will. Darn.  
  
Thanks to Dom for beta reading again, and putting up with my terrible spelling.  
  
***  
  
ENTER THE DRAGON  
  
***  
  
Draco Malfoy sighed angrily in his potions lessons. This term had been the most boring he's ever encountered. The day before he had come back to Hogwarts his father had taken him aside to have 'a word'.  
  
"Listen carefully Draco, because I'm not going to repeat myself." He's hissed when he's been sure that Narcissa was elsewhere "You are to stay away from Potter and Weasley this year, do you understand? Do nothing to aggravate them, nothing. Don't even make any cheap shots at the filthy mudblood they hang around with. And if I hear that you have even mentioned the death of that little Weasley where they can hear you, I will hang you up in the dungeons and leave you there."  
  
"Why do you care if I hurt Weasley's feelings?" Draco asked.  
  
"Because people are already suspicious of my connection with the. incident that killed her. If my son is seen goading one of the victims family members, it will not look good on me."  
  
You think I'm stupid, don't you? Draco had thought to himself afterwards, you think I didn't notice you sneaking something into the manor that night, and didn't connect it to you banning me from a wing of the house that I never went to anyway. She's in here somewhere, and I'm going to use that against you.  
  
But he'd done as his father had asked, mainly out of pure fear. So he had spent half a term trying to stay out of the trio's way, and being thoroughly bored. To keep his mind occupied, he's taken to cursing Crabbe randomly. Goyle went along with it, mainly because he was glad it wasn't him being cursed.  
  
"Accio book." Draco said after a while, and watched with satisfaction as his huge volume of 'Most Potent Potions' hit Crabbe in the head.  
  
"Ow!" Crabbe muttered, glaring at Goyle, who was laughing.  
  
"Mr Malfoy." Snape scorned, but said nothing else. Potter and Weasley glared at him, and to stop himself from making some sort of remark, he turned around to flirt with Pansy Parkinson.  
  
"You know, I think you've gone soft on those Gryffindors." Said Blaise Zabini after a while, she was sitting next to Pansy "You never try and curse them anymore."  
  
"Father has advised me to stay away from them for a while." Draco explained, glaring at the pretty dark haired girl. If under a truth telling curse, he would have admitted that he was far more attracted to Blaise then he was to Pansy, but she was too intelligent for him. Not that she was more intelligent that him, he just preferred his girls to be less intelligent than him, so they wouldn't question his ways.  
  
"And you obey all your fathers orders?" Blaise asked pointedly.  
  
"I listen to his advice, Zabini, I don't obey his orders." Which was a lie of course. Draco was terrified of his father, and would probably do anything to stay in his good books.  
  
"Mr Malfoy, Miss Parkinson, Miss Zabini, please write down what I've written on the board." Snape called. Draco turned around, and groaned when he saw the word 'HOMEWORK' written above a large amount of small writing. He pulled out his eagle feather quill and scribbled it down hurriedly.  
  
"I expect three roles of parchment on polyjuice potions by the end of the holidays." The Potions master called. Draco saw Potter and Granger exchange quick grins, which left him puzzled. Granger probably knew everything about that potion already, but what would Potter know? Maybe she'd held him down and forced him to listen to her recite her notes on it.  
  
When the bell rang for them to leave, Draco released a satisfied sigh. The half term had ended, and he got to go home for a week.  
  
***  
  
This half term had been hard for Ron. Everyone seemed depressed at the beginning, but after a few weeks, everyone had cheered up a bit, except for him. Harry and Hermione did their best to make him feel better, but it just wasn't working. Despite his earlier beliefs that people hadn't been honouring Ginny properly by being silent and glum, it was even worse now that everyone was feeling better. It felt like they were forgetting her, and Neville and the others.  
  
He had felt better after the funeral, but only slightly. He had been allowed to return home for the weekend, and they had held a small ceremony in the local church. Afterwards the whole family had returned to the Burrow, and that had stayed up all night talking about her, telling stories. Several times aunts and uncles had convinced him to tell a story or two of his own, and people had smiled and patted his back. Percy hadn't attended.  
  
He wrote to his mother twice a week now, for his sake more than hers. Family had always surrounded him, and now he was alone. He had to reassure himself that there were people waiting for him to come home.  
  
"Mum's invited you to come stay with us over the half term." Ron said as he collapsed into the comfy chair in the common room.  
  
"That'd be nice, I'll write to my parents and get they're permission." Hermione said.  
  
"Yeah, I've been meaning to right to Remus for a while now anyway." Harry nodded. Before Sirius had died he's written in his will that the Guardianship of Harry was to be passed over to Remus Lupin, who had accepted happily.  
  
"That is." Hermione began nervously "If you want us to come."  
  
Ron was startled. It had honestly never occurred to him that he'd want to spend time away from his best friends. After Cedric's death, Harry had reacted by pushing them away, but for Ron, things were different. Harry had never had a family, and was used to being alone. Ron, on the other hand, had always had his family, and needed people to help with grief.  
  
"Of course I want you to come, you're just as much part of my family as my parents." Ron said honestly. Hermione smiled gratefully, and Harry coughed, trying to hide the tears that had sprung to his eyes.  
  
The three of them headed up to the Owlery to send the letters. Hedwig soared down as soon as they walked in, and landed on Harry's shoulder, affectionately nipping him on the ear. Hermione picked a fast looking eagle owl, and stroked it once or twice before fastening the letter to its leg.  
  
"Be quick, ok? We need the reply soon, so pester Lupin until he replies." Harry said. Hedwig puffed up importantly, and swooped out, shortly followed by the eagle owl.  
  
"I really should get an owl." Hermione muttered, as they watched the two beautiful birds fly away.  
  
"Maybe." Ron started, and faltered, before beginning again. "Maybe you can get the money from you parents for Christmas, and we can go to D-Diagon Alley during the Christmas holidays."  
  
Hermione took his hand and squeezed it, and Harry patted his shoulder.  
  
"Maybe we can."  
  
***  
  
It was so dark and scary, she could barely move out of fear. And the worst part was she knew that this was inside of her, that this was part of who she was. She was filled with darkness and evil, his darkness and evil.  
  
"You haven't visited me for so long Ginny." Came his voice, crawling over her body like silk. Only she knew it wasn't really her body, only a representation of it. He couldn't hurt her. Well.she didn't think he could hurt her.  
  
"I've been busy." She muttered. It was such a relief to hear her voice, after that long silence. This darkness was better than the nothingness, no matter how scary.  
  
"To busy for me? But I thought you loved me." There was genuine surprise in his voice, and he sounded so young. When she had written to him she had only been eleven and he had seemed so old, but now she was only a year younger than him.  
  
"I did love you, but that was years ago, I've moved on." She explained, "Can I see you?"  
  
"I'm not sure, I'm a bit confused as to where I am." There was a pause, "What do you mean, years?"  
  
"It's been years since I last wrote to you. Over three years." He really did sound young, and confused, in a sweet endearing way. But she knew him well enough to know that there was something else. Even though she had never heard his voice before, she had always known what it would have sounded like, and she knew that under all his innocent confusion, there was a huge amount of anger. He hated not being in control.  
  
"Oh."  
  
"And we're in my mind, just in case you're wondering." She explained. The darkness was no longer so scary, just very calm. And even if he was a psychotic killer, he was company, and that was something she had been longing for, for weeks.  
  
"Your mind. Well, if it's your mind, can't you control it? Any maybe turn on some lights?" He asked playfully.  
  
"I suppose." She tried to concentrate on light. She fixed an image in her mind and focused on it, trying to will herself there.  
  
She opened her eyes to see the familiar setting of the burrow kitchen.  
  
"Is that better Tom?"  
  
***  
  
"Well, this is interesting."  
  
"You'll have to explain, I have no idea what all these squiggly things mean."  
  
"Well, we have two sets of M-Waves overlapping each other. At the moment they're about equal, so I'm guessing that they're match for match."  
  
"Impossible. She's just a child, and not particularly powerful. A healing magic student if what I've heard is to be believed. He is the young incarnation of the Dark Lord. They cannot possibly be match for match. The most likely probability is that they're actually not fighting."  
  
"Not fighting! But if they don't fight, all this will be for nothing. We'll just have a young girl's body with nothing to do with it.Hm."  
  
"Don't be vulgar."  
  
"What? Oh, sorry. What I'm saying is; if they don't fight, how will he take over her body and join our side?"  
  
"Fool! Do you know nothing of our master, the Dark lord? Even in his younger days he had people eating out of the palm of his hand. Give him a few days and she'll give him her body willingly. And take that look of your face, you disgusting man."  
  
***  
  
The replies had arrived just in time, and Harry and Hermione had been able to visit the Weasley's over the holiday. Charlie had returned to Romania, but Bill was still staying at home, and there was someone else staying at the Burrow when they returned.  
  
"Percy?" Ron's alarmed voice rang through the hall when he saw his older brother standing by the door.  
  
"Hello Ron how was your trip home?" He smiled thinly, "Oh, Hello Hermione. Harry."  
  
"What are you doing here?" Ron demanded.  
  
"Well, as I wasn't able to make it to Ginny's. funeral. I thought it would be a good idea to stop by here." He explained.  
  
"And why couldn't you make in to Ginny's funeral? Was there a meeting with the Minister of Magic? Tea with the High Wizard that you just couldn't miss? Ski trip to the Antarctic with the Foreign Minister of bloody Nepal!" Ron shouted and his startled looking brother.  
  
"Ron, please." Mr Weasley pleaded.  
  
"No dad, I want to know what was so important that he could miss his little sister's funeral. I want to know what he cared more about than Ginny." Ron's face was flushed red and he was bearing his teeth "You're a crap brother, you've always cared more about your career than you cared about us. But you missed Ginny's funeral, the last chance you'd ever have to say goodbye to her. Why, Percy? What career-furthering event clashed with our baby sister's funeral?"  
  
"Nothing. I was just too ashamed to show my face. Too scared that I'd ruin it, that you'd turn me away." He said curtly, before turning around and disappearing up the stairs.  
  
"I wish I'd explained it all to you before you got home." Mr Weasly said sadly, "He truly is sorry for what happened between us all, and I really think he was too scared to come to the funeral."  
  
"Yeah." Ron shrugged, his face back to its normal colour, but his ears still red "Well.whatever."  
  
Harry and Hermione dragged their suitcases up the stairs into Ron's bedroom. Hermione was sleeping in Ron's room for the next two weeks, because no one felt comfortable with the idea of her sleeping in Ginny's old room. Mrs Weasley lined them up and made them promise not to get up to anything, and the three teenagers, blushing furiously, agreed.  
  
"As if we would!" Ron said afterwards "I mean, no offence Hermione, but you're like a sister to me."  
  
"No offence taken." Hermione assured him as she pulled out several roles of parchment from her bag.  
  
"What are you doing?" Harry asked.  
  
"I'm starting on the potions homework." She said, looking startled as he begun to tug at the parchment, "What are you doing?"  
  
"It's a rule." Ron told her solemnly as he helped Harry wrestle the homework from her bunched fists. "No homework in Ronald Weasley's room."  
  
"But that's ridiculous!" Hermione insisted as they dragged her into the garden to help degnome it.  
  
***  
  
Draco's arrival at King's Cross Station was uneventful, other than the change in the greeting party. Instead of just the driver, his mother had arrived as well.  
  
"Surprise!" She called, looking overly cheerful.  
  
"Mother?" Was his only reply.  
  
"Aren't you pleased to see me?" She asked.  
  
"No, just surprised." He said honestly. She looked deeply hurt by this.  
  
"You're cruel, just like your father." She pointed out sadly.  
  
"Well mother, I like to think that I'm cruel in a different and far more interesting way."  
  
"Well, if you're not going to be polite, I won't either." She bent over and grabbed him by the arm, surprising him "Listen to me Draco, because believe it or not I have your best interest at heart. Please stay away from your father this holiday. Visit friends, go on day trips, come over with the flu, come over with death! I don't care; just don't get in his way. If you upset him too badly then I can't protect you, and you're the only person in the world I care about anymore."  
  
Draco was speechless. In all his life, his mother had never been so forward, or direct. He was so used to her being the doting wife and mother; it had never occurred to him that she had any passion in her.  
  
"Ok mother, I'll try." He said. He suddenly felt bad about always being so cruel to her. She was his mother, and in his odd little way he did care for her a bit, and he didn't want her upset. On a random impulse, he placed his hand on her arm and whispered, "I love you mother."  
  
"That was kind, but you don't have to lie to me." She replied, placing a small kiss on his temple. Draco drooped miserably, because, as horrible as it was, he had lied.  
  
***  
  
Even if you don't like my story, please review and tell me what's wrong with it. Constructive criticism and all that. 


	3. The Dragon's Battle

Disclaimer: Again? Really? Ok. Not mine, all J.K.Rowling's. Happy?  
  
I was in a bit of a hurry so I didn't run this by my Beta. Excuse all the spelling mistakes.  
  
***  
  
Bella Mia: Just because you were my first reviewer for this story I'm going to weave in one of those pairings you asked for, even though I'm not really much of a fan for those two.  
  
Azhben: Thanks for the support  
  
Latrikana: Wow, you're so. enthusiastic. It's really moral boosting. Thanks!  
  
***  
  
THE DRAGON'S BATTLE  
  
***  
  
The Malfoy Manor was silent when Draco arrived home. A house elf scuttled past him to the kitchen, and looked surprised when Draco didn't immediately kick him.  
  
"Is master feeling well sir?" It asked, it's tennis ball sized eyes widening even further.  
  
"Yes, why?" He replied sharply.  
  
"Well, Nolly has worked here since before master was born, and master has been kicking Nolly since master could walk." It told him.  
  
"Well, would you feel better if I did kick you?" Draco asked, feeling a bit unsure.  
  
"Is master sure he is feeling well? Master has never asked Nolly, or any other house elf how they feel." It pointed out.  
  
"You know what, I think I am feeling a bit unwell." He admitted, "Make me some soup elf."  
  
"Please." Narcissa added, much to her son's annoyance.  
  
"You don't have to ask them mother, you know that." Draco scolded.  
  
"Yes, but I prefer asking them, it makes me feel like I'm less of a monster." She explained.  
  
"I'm not a monster!" He exclaimed. His mother smiled kindly at him, "I'm not! Mother! I'm not! Am I?"  
  
***  
  
"You truly are a monster." She said to him.  
  
"What? All I said was that your kitchen was a little shabby." He laughed, "I'm quite possibly one of the most evil minds ever encountered, and you find my insulting your kitchen monstrous."  
  
"Well, that means that I'm also one of the most evil minds ever encountered, as you are living in my mind." She pointed out.  
  
"Very true. I suppose that makes us soul mates, two evil minds, twined together as one." He was rummaging through her cupboards, possibly looking for something to eat, although that was probably pointless.  
  
"I wasn't evil until after you corrupted me." She snapped, "And anyway, I only have an evil mind because you're currently residing in it. If you were to go away, I'd be a perfectly normal child again."  
  
"Really? How many normal teenage girls are in love with the child incarnation of the evil Lord Voldemort? How many normal teenage girls have been dragged into the legendary chamber of secrets? How many normal teenage girls have almost committed murder?"  
  
"All those thing's are your fault." She exclaimed, "Besides, I'm not in love with you. When I was a little girl I had a crush on you because you were this amazing boy who understood my completely. But even if I hadn't found out who you really where, I'd have eventually moved on."  
  
"And yet I still dwell in your mind, to a point where you can sit and converse with me." He pointed out.  
  
"Tom, you can't fool me, you are no figment of my imagination. You're what's left of your dairy self. You put so much of yourself in me, that you got a part trapped." She smiled brilliantly, and saw him tremble slightly "And you are trapped here Tom, forever. I won't ever let you out, not ever. Because if you got out, I can't even imagine the damage you'd do. So you're stuck. But I'm not, I can leave whenever I like."  
  
And with that parting statement, she focused on her body, and felt her mind slip back into place.  
  
***  
  
"I see your son's returned from Hogwarts."  
  
"Yes, it really in unfortunate as I shall have to spend some time with him."  
  
"Count yourself lucky. I have five daughters, five! It's actually quite embarrassing, people see it as a reflection on myself."  
  
"I hope your not intending on going home to see them this holiday, I need you here."  
  
"Come now Lucius, just one day. It's Lucinda's first year, I have to go and see her."  
  
"Quite frankly, I don't care. What's happening now, with all those squiggly lines?"  
  
"M-Waves, Lucius, M-Waves, its not that hard."  
  
"Just tell me what's happening."  
  
"Ok, ok. Hm, now this is interesting, most interesting."  
  
"What's interesting?"  
  
"The M-Waves are changing. It's possible that Mr Riddle is finally coming into control."  
  
"Yes, yes, I can see, that line is definitely higher than the other one."  
  
"Yes, but that's not right. That's Weasley's line. What in the hell? She's taking over again!"  
  
"But that's not possible, Riddle should have crushed her mind!"  
  
"I know it's not possible, but it's happening! Damn, this isn't working."  
  
"Well, what now?"  
  
"I have no clue."  
  
***  
  
It was a bright morning at the Burrow, Remus had come to visit, and the table was crammed with a breakfast that would have made the Hogwarts house elves bow their heads in shame.  
  
"Mum, what are those?" Ron asked, pointing a golden brown square that was shaped like a window.  
  
"I'm not quite sure, your father brought them home." Mrs Weasly admitted.  
  
"They're waffles." Hermione said, smiling and scooping up one with her fork, "Muggle food. They're potatoes that have been pressed into that shape. They're really nice."  
  
"Ingenious really." Mr Weasley said, taking a bite.  
  
"Muggle food." Ron said doubtfully.  
  
"Don't be a chicken." Harry laughed, piling food onto his plate, "Muggles haven't survived all this time by poisoning their food."  
  
"Yes, but I've looked at some of Hermione's old Muggle studies books, and they poison their food more than our sort do." Ron pointed out.  
  
"Our sort Ron? Really, that's just the sort of attitude that makes life so hard for me." Mr Weasley scolded, "We are all human beings. You could turn it around and say that Muggles are more civilised than us because they don't point pieces of stick at each other to blow things up. There is nothing wrong with eating their food, and if chocolate frog's wouldn't scare the life out of them, we'd share our food too."  
  
Ron looked vaguely ashamed, and tried a bit of Hermione's waffle, before helping himself to two.  
  
"They are quite nice." Ron admitted.  
  
At that moment, Remus came into the kitchen and slid into a seat next to Harry's.  
  
"Any bacon?" he asked Mrs Weasley, who was standing over the cooker, stirring a pan of baked beans absent-mindedly.  
  
"What? Oh, of course, here you go love." She said, tapping her wand against a frying pan and causing it to sizzle.  
  
"Where's Percy this morning?" Remus asked Mr Weasley, who uncomfortably glanced at Ron. Ron ignored him and continued to eat his food.  
  
"He's at work at the moment. His division has been having a lot of troubles since You-Know-Who's resurrection went public."  
  
"Serves him right for not believing us in the first place." Ron mumbled.  
  
"Well, yes, of course if people had believed us at first thing's would be easier, but what matters is that they believe us now." Mr Weasley said nervously.  
  
"Yeah well." Ron began, but was cut off my Mrs Weasley.  
  
"Are you three packed? I took a glance at that bedroom, and it's a mess." She scolded. The three teenagers blushed, and finished their breakfast quickly before disappearing upstairs.  
  
"Ron looks well." Remus commented.  
  
"Harry and Hermione have been a great help." Mr Weasley nodded, "It's Bill that we're worried about. He adored Ginny, and since she died he's been working non-stop. We wish he would take a break."  
  
"We all deal with our pain in our own ways." Remus pointed out.  
  
"Yes, I just wish he would talk to us." The older man sighed unhappily.  
  
"He'll come around."  
  
At that point Mrs Weasley gave a huge sniffle, put down the dishes and walked into the living room. Mr Weasley sighed and buried his face in his hands, and all Remus could do was pat him gingerly on the shoulder.  
  
***  
  
Lucius sat at the head of the dinner table while his wife and son sat at either side of him.  
  
"How was your day dear?" He asked Narcissa, who was glancing nervously between her husband and her son.  
  
"It was quite pleasant." She nodded, "I saw Lucinda Parkinson today, she said that her daughter, Pansy, hasn't stopped talking about Draco since she got home. The Parkinson's are a very respectable family."  
  
"I'm not marrying Pansy, if that's what you're saying." Draco growled.  
  
"I quite agree." Said Lucius, much to his son's surprises, "The Parkinson's are all very unattractive, wouldn't you like my son to have a pretty bride?"  
  
"And who do you think is 'pretty' enough for our son?" Narcissa asked, her voice icily polite.  
  
"I hear Damien Zabini's daughter is in your year." He said to his son, seemingly ignoring the livid woman next to him.  
  
"Blaise? She's a stuck up." Draco begun, but was cut off.  
  
"Now, now Draco, you do not insult a lady, even if she isn't present." Lucius scolded, "Damien has five other daughter's you could choose from, three of which attend Hogwarts at the moment."  
  
"I'm only just turning sixteen father, I'm hardly considering marriage!" Draco exclaimed. He saw his mother wince, and bury her head in her hands as Lucius's eyes blazed with anger.  
  
"When I was your age I had already decided that I wished to marry your mother, and spent five long years in the pursuit of her." He growled, "And all I got as a reward was you, a boy with no extraordinary magical talents, and who hadn't even inherited his parent's good looks!"  
  
Draco had been through this argument so many times before that it no longer affected him as it had. His father had always taken it as a personal insult that Draco was not a particularly powerful wizard, and even more so that he wasn't hansom like his father, or striking like his mother. He knew what was going to happen next, his father would start bringing up his faults.  
  
"Look at how pinched your face is, like a ferret, it really is quite terrible. You're too short by far, and too skinny. My god, you look like a girl." Lucius stopped and glared at him, "Are you even paying attention? Boy?"  
  
The next bit was inevitable, it always happened when they argued. Lucius's arm came up, and hit him squarely across his face.  
  
"Lucius, please!" He heard his mother plead. She always did, but he never listened. Draco didn't even know why she bothered.  
  
You're the only person in the world I care about anymore. Her words came back to him, and made him falter for a moment. He could still feel his father's fist coming down on him, and still felt the familiar pain, but now another thought occurred to him. This was actually really upsetting his mother. He didn't mind the pain, he had become used to it, but his mother probably would never get used to the sight of her husband beating her son.  
  
And despite what Lucius had said, Draco wasn't too short and too skinny to at least defend himself.  
  
"Get off me!" he shouted, twisting away. Lucius looked totally stunned for a moment. In almost sixteen years his son had never raised his voice to his father directly. But the moment passed, and new anger blazed over the man's face.  
  
"Get here boy, now!" He shouted, making a grab for his son.  
  
"Don't touch me!" Draco shouted back, dodging, "You're lucky you're not in Azkaban, if they'd found you guilty of being a Death Eater, you'd be there now. I don't really think you should be doing anything else that could get you in trouble with the law."  
  
"What I do in my own house has nothing to do with the law!" Lucius roared.  
  
"Even if it involves locking a girl up in the wing and letting the world believe she's dead?" There, Draco had used his ultimate weapon. He only hoped he hadn't used it too soon.  
  
"What?" His father whispered.  
  
"You think I don't know about you kidnapping Ginny Weasley and locking her up in the wing?" Draco asked, "I know that's what you've done. I saw you sneaking into the manor on the day where you killed all those students."  
  
"Draco, my son, you seem to be mistaken." Lucius had now adopted an oily voice which Draco hated, "I havn't got anyone locked up here."  
  
"Liar! I don't know why you've got her, I don't really care, but that really is sick!"  
  
"Would you have preferred if I had just killed her?" He asked, "Would that have been better?"  
  
"Lucius, there's a girl locked up in our house?" Narcissa, who had been silent for a while, now turned on her husband, her eyes blaring, "You've got a little girl locked up in our house?"  
  
"You don't understand." Lucius growled, "It's one of the Dark Lord's plans. You've done some terrible thing's in order to serve him too."  
  
At this Narcissa looked ashamed and turned her head away, "You know I felt terrible about my cousin's death. I gave you the information you needed to lure Potter from Hogwarts, but I took no pride in it. And I thought we were above using innocent children in our schemes."  
  
"We are above nothing, we are dirt in the eyes of our master. It is an honour to give out lives in his service, and should be grateful when he simply asks us to take another's life." Lucius told her.  
  
"That's sick." Draco spat.  
  
"Don't interrupt boy."  
  
"Hey, we're the ones who're arguing!" He said in an offended tone.  
  
"Don't you dare get side-tracked Lucius, I want to know exactly why we have a girl locked up." Narcissa warned.  
  
"I don't believe it, my family has turned against me!" Lucius threw up his hands, and glared at his wife and son.  
  
"Well, serves you right for being a bastard!" Draco exclaimed.  
  
"Don't talk to your father like that."  
  
"Mother!" he said, aghast, "whose side are you on?"  
  
"My own!" She said.  
  
"That's it, I will not tolerate this behaviour in my house. He turned to Narcissa "Imperus!" Narcissa's eyes became wide and vacant, and she sat down on a chair, looking into the distance.  
  
"Bastard!" Draco shouted, raising his own wand.  
  
"And you." Lucius turned to his son, "You, I want out of my house. Just get your things and get out. Two weeks on your own should teach you a lesson."  
  
"Fine." Draco turned and stormed out of the dining room. But he didn't go up the main staircase towards his bedroom, instead he turned left, towards the forbidden wing.  
  
I'll teach him, he thought to himself, How dare he chuck me out? I'll teach him.  
  
As he walked into the first floor, the first thing he saw was Damien Zabini, Blaise's father. The man turned around in surprise, and Draco quickly hit him with a stunning spell. The room was filled with screens filled with little squiggly lines, that Draco couldn't even begin to understand. One screen however was much larger, and showed what appeared to be a white room with invisible walls. Floating in the centre was the vaguely familiar figure of Ginny Weasley. To his left was a door, which Draco opened and stepped through.and fell.  
  
He immediately grabbed hold of the bottom of the door, and dragged himself up. What had first appeared to be a room, now looked like an endless space of nothingness. "Um. Accio Ginny?" He tried, and was quite proud to see that she was zooming towards him. The pride quickly died away when she hit him fully in the stomach, and sent him reeling back into the room with all the screens. She apparently hadn't felt it, and looked extremely surprised when she saw him. Her mouth moved once, but no sound came out.  
  
"Weasley?" He said, and saw tears come to her eyes, and her mouth started moving more frantically. It occurred to Draco that she might be under some sort of silencing charm, and quickly produced the counter curse.  
  
".And I've been so alone and scared and.oh! I can hear myself again!" She began crying even more "I can't feel anything, not at all."  
  
"Maybe you're under a numbing spell." Draco guessed.  
  
"I might be!" She closed her eyes and began thinking deeply, "Malfoy, please help me, there's a charm, it's a bit tricky, and I don't have my wand. The word is Felingus, and you have to do a quick flick up then to the right. Can you try?"  
  
"I guess. Felingus!" It took several attempts, but Ginny finally was able to feel a bit. She marked this by crying even more.  
  
"Come on, stop that, I have to get out of here, and I'm bringing you with me." Draco told her.  
  
"You're rescuing me?" She hiccupped.  
  
"Not really, I'm just trying to piss off my father." He admitted, "But it looks and smells like I'm rescuing you, so it doesn't really matter."  
  
Helping her up, he carried her to the fireplace, and reached into a pot, pulling out some floo powder.  
  
"Diagon Alley!" He shouted, and as the green flames flared up, he pulled her into the fireplace.  
  
***  
  
The Diagon Alley Floo Network was always busy, and the arrival of the two teenagers caused no stir. A fat wizard with eyes brows that looked like caterpillars nodded at Draco, who nodded back trying to make it look like he was hugging Ginny, and not supporting her.  
  
"We need to get you somewhere to sit." He said, glancing around nervously.  
  
"We could go to the Leaky Cauldron." Ginny suggested, but Draco shook his head.  
  
"Everyone thinks your dead, and we can't let them know otherwise until we've figured out what to tell them."  
  
"Well, the truth of course." She said.  
  
"And tell me Weasley, what exactly is the truth?" Draco asked, and she looked away, saying nothing, "There's a slightly dodgy pub around the corner, the owners know that just because you look like the dead Ginny Weasley, doesn't mean you are her."  
  
"But I am." Ginny pointed out.  
  
"But they'll assumed you're not." He put his arm around her waist, and she put her arm on his shoulders, both hoping it looked casual.  
  
Once inside the pub they found a secluded booth, and he sat her down.  
  
"Can you move much yet?" He asked,  
  
"Not really." She admitted, looking at her wasted hands, "How long have I been thought dead for?"  
  
"Ten weeks I guess." Draco told her, and she closed her eyes sadly.  
  
"And everyone else in the shop, they're really are dead?" Ginny asked.  
  
"Your body was the only one unaccounted for." He nodded, "What was that thing I found you in?"  
  
"Nothingness. They took away my ability to feel and speak, and gave me nothing to hear and see." She told him.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I think they wanted me to find Tom." She replied.  
  
"Who?" He asked, and she laughed softly.  
  
"Do you remember what happened in my first year? When I was possessed by You-Know-Who? When he was young he was called Tom Riddle, and that was the boy I wrote to in my diary for a year. He poured his soul into me, and it's still here." She touched her heart, "And here." She touched her temple, "When I was in that room, I retreated into myself, and found him waiting for me. After talking to him for a while, I realised that as it was my mind, there was no reason why I shouldn't be in control, and I came back out. Has it really been ten weeks?"  
  
"About." Draco nodded, "That's completely.unreal. The Dark Lord is inside you?"  
  
"Not really. When Tom was sixteen he was just as evil as You-Know-Who is now, but he was still different. The person I have inside me is a sixteen- year-old You-Know-Who." Ginny grimaced, "Not that that's any better. You know, if it has been ten weeks since I was put in that room, it means I havn't eaten in ten weeks. I should be dead."  
  
"My father probably put some spell up to stop that." He said, "Why would they want you to find Tom Riddle inside yourself?"  
  
"I suppose they wanted him to take over me. With Tom by his side, You-Know- Who would be impossible to defeat." She told him, "ten weeks really is a long time to go without eating."  
  
"Weasley, if you want some food you can ask." Draco sighed.  
  
"Are you offering?" She asked.  
  
"Yeah, I guess." He waved his arm up in the air, and a woman with a face like a bulldog came over.  
  
"What can I do for you?" She asked.  
  
"Um, I'd like some roast beef with some potatoes, roasted, and not mashed." She scribbled it down quickly, and turned to Ginny.  
  
"What would you like dear?" She asked, but Ginny said nothing.  
  
"Hey, Weasley, Weasley, you're being talked to." Draco waved a hand in front of her face, but nothing happened, she started blankly ahead, "Weasley? Weasley, you ok?"  
  
She sat on her seat, looking into the distance, her mouth slightly open, ignoring him.  
  
***  
  
She was falling into darkness, screaming.  
  
***  
  
"I'm really sorry about this. She's my cousin, not very stable."  
  
***  
  
An arm shot out and grabbed her, pulling her straight.  
  
***  
  
"Cancel my order, thank you. I just need to get her home. This happens all the time."  
  
***  
  
"Hello Ginny, welcome back."  
  
***  
  
Review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 


	4. Deep In Her Mind

Disclaimer: Not mine, J.K.Rowling's.  
  
***  
  
Thank you's:  
  
My Beta Dom  
  
Snapegirl51606: Was that a compliment? I'm not sure, but I'm encouraged all the same  
  
KATEY B: I hope something good happens too!  
  
***  
  
Deep In Her Mind  
  
***  
  
"How did you get me here?" Ginny asked angrily.  
  
"I called and you couldn't bear to stay away." Tom replied, smirking.  
  
"This is my mind, you have no control here." She said through clenched teeth.  
  
"And yet.I do." He laughed, "Don't worry my dear, I can't keep you here for very long, I just wanted to have a chat. Shall we go for a picnic?"  
  
And suddenly they were on a hill, the sun was setting and a cloth was set out with a meal set upon it.  
  
"We're inside my mind, we can hardly eat." Ginny scowled.  
  
"True, but the atmosphere is ever so pleasant." Tom sat down and indicated for her to join him, and smiled charmingly when she did, "I went through a lot of trouble to organize this for you, I'll have you know. My own memories and thoughts hold no sway here, so I had to use some of yours."  
  
"You what?"  
  
"Well, this is the hill your mother took you to, to have the 'talk'. And this is the picnic Michael Corner made for your first date." He explained.  
  
"You can see those memories?" Ginny asked, blushing.  
  
"Yes, and he was such a gentle man, wasn't he? Wouldn't so much as touch you unless you initiated it." Tom picked up a grape and popped it into his mouth.  
  
"Don't you dare look at my memories again." She growled.  
  
"You can hardly stop me. And anyway, I came across them by complete accident. I was simply looking for a way to take control of your body, ad I stumbled across these." He leant over and brushed a strand of hair away from her face, and chuckled when she drew away.  
  
"Bastard." She muttered.  
  
"Well, you don't have to worry; I can't take over your body. Those. What are they called? Death Eaters, that's it. They were foolish to think that I could simply push you away and make your body mine. All possessions are temporary because the body never wants to let go of its original soul. I could easily fight you Ginny, but I can hardly fight you and your body." He shook his head, "No, the only way I could have your body is if you gave it to me willingly. So, what do you say?"  
  
"You're mad!" She laughed, "Do you really think I'll just give you my body, because you asked?"  
  
"Well, I was hoping you would, yes." He smiled, looking slightly shy, which she knew was all an act, "I just want to live again Ginny. Before you found me again, I was lost in a sea of your thoughts. And then you found me! Ginny, you're my whole world, and I can never repay you for what you've done for me. Don't you understand Ginny? I love you."  
  
"You're lying." She said, "Badly. In fact, that whole speech was comical. You only love yourself, which is fine. But you don't want to be in my body Tom, believe me. I'm a girl for god's sake! Half your charm is that you're a good-looking boy. Besides, I'm not nearly powerful enough."  
  
"Well, yes, you're right, I was lying. I just didn't realise I was quite so transparent." He frowned, "The speech was quite nice in my opinion, and the setting is lovely. And you're right, you're not powerful enough for me, but beggars can't be choosers. Once I've taken control of your body I assume power will just flow to me. It generally does."  
  
"I'm not going to give over my body willingly, and seeing as that's the only way you can get it then I guess you're screwed." She fixed him with her eyes, "After what you put me through when you last possessed me, you were a fool to think I'd ever let you do that to me again."  
  
"And that's all we have time for today." He said, standing up, "It's been lovely speaking to you, but I can only hold you here for short periods of time. I'll see you next time."  
  
Her body shuddered violently, and black dots swam in front of her eyes as she fell into consciousness.  
  
***  
  
Draco had been able to convince the woman in the pub that Ginny was fine, and had led the unresisting girl out, and into a back room. The owner had objected at first, but Draco had thrown a few Galleons at him, which had shut him up. He had then spent the next hour pacing up and down the room, occasionally shaking Ginny in the hopes of waking her up.  
  
"Wake up you stupid ginger freckly Weasley!" He shouted eventually, when boredom and fear had gotten the better of him.  
  
"Ouch." She muttered, bringing a hand to her head.  
  
"You're awake!" He sighed in relief and collapsed in the seat next to her, "God you had me scared." Ginny raised an eyebrow, "Not about your health, just about what was going to happen to me."  
  
"I'm touched." She grumbled, and looked around, "Where are we?"  
  
"A back room. I put silencing spells up, so we should be fine." Draco explained.  
  
"Ok, so how do we contact Dumbledore?" Ginny asked.  
  
"That is not our main concern at the moment." He looked at her up and down, "Can you walk properly? You got here ok, but you stumbled a couple of times, and we weren't exactly walking far."  
  
"Well, it's not exactly a surprise, I havn't moved a muscle in over ten weeks!" She exclaimed, and looked down at her wasted wrists "Look at me. If I wasn't a witch, I doubt I'd be able to move at all. I don't have any muscles."  
  
"Yes, but as soon as the anorexic unhealthy look comes into fashion, you'll be on the front of Teen Witch Weekly with no problem." It was meant as a joke, but something about Ginny's expression told Draco that she hadn't found it funny.  
  
"Dumbledore." She said after a while.  
  
"No." He shook his head, "No way."  
  
"What? Why not?" The red haired girl look startled beyond belief.  
  
"What would we tell him? 'Hey look, she's not dead, my dad just had her locked up in our house so that she could get possessed with something evil. It didn't work, but now she has a young version of You-Know-Who stuck in her head'? I can't see that going down too well." He brushed his hair out of the way and fixed her with his steely eyes, "What happened when you went strange just then?"  
  
"Tom called me back into my mind." She explained what happened, and what Tom had said about possessing her, "We have to see Dumbledore, he's the only one who can help."  
  
"Are you mad? If we go to Dumbledore he'll have to turn you over to the Ministry, and what do you think they're going to do about you? I'll tell you what; they'll feed you to the Dementors, so that his soul never has a chance to resurface." Draco leant back in his seat, "And even if you tell them that he can't possess you unless you let him, do you think they'll believe you? Tom Riddle told you that, we can't even believe that it's the truth, it might just be an elaborate scam to make you let your guard down"  
  
"Then what can we do?" She asked.  
  
"First we have to go to Gringotts. I used up the last of my money by renting this room." Draco's brow furrowed as he thought, "My father probably hasn't had time to cancel my account yet, but he soon will, so I'll have to open up a new one under a different name and put my money into that. We should go now."  
  
With Draco supporting Ginny, the two of them walked out of the pub, and into the streets of Diagon Alley. They hurried through the crowd, and slipped into the huge building of Gringotts. He talked quietly to a Goblin, who nodded seriously. Ginny couldn't hear what was being said, but she sure that Draco was offering the Goblin quite a lot of money, because afterwards the Goblin lead them into a lovely spacious room, and offered then a large plate filled with little appetisers.  
  
After they were sat and comfortable, an official looking Goblin walked in, and bowed to Draco before sitting down.  
  
"Good afternoon Master Malfoy." He said, glancing at Ginny in a way that made her feel self-conscious.  
  
"Afternoon Hurtzaz." Draco nodded.  
  
"I understand you wish to make a few changes to your account." Hurtzaz looked curious.  
  
"Yes, I'd like to open two new accounts, under the names of Nathaniel and Emily Bowcott." Draco explained, "I'd like it to be stated on the record that Nathaniel and Emily are cousins. One sixth of my funds are to be directed to Emily Bowcott's account, and the rest to Nathaniel Bowcott's."  
  
"And do you have your key, Master Bowcott?" Hurtzaz asked, and Ginny was surprised at how quickly the Goblin caught on.  
  
"Here." Draco pulled a long silver key out of his pocket, which the Goblin inspected, "One last thing, when Mr Malfoy calls up to cancel Draco Malfoy's funds, allow him to, and don't mention this."  
  
"Of course." Said Hurtzaz, inspecting the key. He then called another Goblin over who handed Ginny and Draco similar looking silver keys, "Do you wish to take out any money now?"  
  
"Yes, I think we should." He turned to Ginny, "What do you think Emily?"  
  
"What? Oh, yes." Ginny mumbled, slightly taken back at the whole thing. These Goblins were just letting them break the law, just because Draco was offering them some money.  
  
Instead of the normal cart journey Ginny had expected, they were taken into a glass elevator, which took them several floors down. Once they were outside, Hurtzaz led them to two large vaults, one with Nathaniel Bowcott written on it, and the other with Emily Bowcott.  
  
"We'll only be taking out of my funds." Draco said. The vault door opened, and Ginny had to stifle a gasp.  
  
It was filled with mounds and mounds of galleons, and went back too far for Ginny to reach. Draco filled his money pouch with a handful of the golden coins, and nodded at Ginny to do the same. Her hands trembled slightly as she picked up the gold, and it occurred to her that she was now in possession of more money than her parents had ever had at any one time.  
  
They headed back into the elevator, and Hurtzaz walked them to the door of Gringotts.  
  
"It was very nice doing business with you Master Bowcott, Miss Bowcott." He said in an oily voice.  
  
"Yes, I hope to do so again in the future." Draco replied, and bowed slightly. The goblin returned the gesture, bowing slightly deeper than Draco had.  
  
Afterwards the two headed for a small teahouse, Draco supporting Ginny.  
  
"I can't believe we just did that." Ginny whispered once they were seated.  
  
"Why not?" He asked curiously.  
  
"Well, it was against the law for one thing. And I know he recognized me." She hissed.  
  
"Yes, but I just gave them rather a lot of money, and goblins care more about money than they do about human affairs." Draco explained.  
  
"And why did you open up an account for me but not let me take any money out of it?" Ginny asked.  
  
"Isn't it obvious?" He was greeted by a blank stare, "So that if we get split up you have enough money to get by for a while."  
  
"Oh, ok." She blushed slightly.  
  
"And that's another point, what should we do if we do get split up?" He asked.  
  
"Well, we should think of a place to meet." She frowned in thought, "Do you spend much time in Muggle London?"  
  
"Not really." He admitted.  
  
"Well, there's a place called Covent Garden. It's often quite busy, so we wouldn't be seen if we met there." She explained.  
  
"How would someone like me find this place without using Muggle transport?" Draco's cheeks turned faintly pink, "I'm not sure I'd know how to work Muggle systems."  
  
"I know that Malfoy." She sighed, "That's why I chose Covent Garden. Students doing Muggle Studies in seventh year have to go there on field trips, so there's a floo connection. But one would think to look for us there, as not many people even know there is a floo connection."  
  
"How do you know?" He asked.  
  
"My father's Arthur Weasley, Muggle expert extraordinaire." Ginny laughed lightly.  
  
"And I never thought that fact would ever come in useful." Draco admitted dryly.  
  
***  
  
They spent a few hours in Diagon Alley buying items that they'd need to travel, including, to Draco's horror, muggle clothing.  
  
"What would my father think!" He exclaimed as he looked at himself in the mirror.  
  
"We're on the run from your father, we don't really need to know what he'd think about your clothing." Ginny scolded.  
  
"It's alright for you, people would expect a Weasley to wear Muggle clothes, but I'm a Malfoy!" He continued, ignoring what she had just said.  
  
"People expect me to be dead." She reminded him, "And you're not a Malfoy, you're a Bowcott. Why on earth did you choose such a horrible name?"  
  
"It was the name of my first pet." Draco said, looking slightly sulky.  
  
"Oh that was a good idea!" She exclaimed nastily, "That's not something your father is going to guess! Why didn't you just change it to 'Nathaniel I'm-not-Draco-Malfoy-honest'?"  
  
"Father never knew I had a pet called Bowcott." Draco snapped, "Do you really think I'm that stupid? Bowcott was a fox that used to live on the grounds. I named it and tamed it without my father knowing."  
  
"Oh, ok then. Sorry." Ginny blushed, and started to inspect a purple t- shirt.  
  
"Ok, what are you going to buy?" He asked finally.  
  
"Um, just two pairs of jeans and a few tops." She said, "You?"  
  
"Is that all?" He looked surprised, "I'm buying four pairs of black jeans, three pairs of black trousers, four black shirts, a dark green shirt, a black t-shirt and a dark green t-shirt."  
  
"Wow, that's a lot." Ginny's mouth hung slightly open. There was no need to ask about how he was going to fit it all in, he'd already bought them both bags that were charmed to never become full.  
  
"What are you going to wear if we end up at a formal party?" Draco asked, while inspecting a black dinner jacket and tie.  
  
"Do you really expect us to end up at a formal party?" She asked.  
  
"It's possible, and we need to be prepared." He looked around, and picked out a long dark green skirt with a black long sleeved top, "How's this?"  
  
"You really do like black and green, don't you?" She sighed, "And for someone who hates Muggle clothes, you really are buying a lot."  
  
"I like looking nice." Draco shrugged, "Do you like the clothes or not?"  
  
After admitting that, yes, she did like the clothes; he promptly bought them, and dragged her out to continue with their shopping. They bought some ordinary wizarding robes, and dress robes (for the formal party that Draco was sure they were going to end up at), some hiking gear, much to Ginny's surprise, and some potions ingredients.  
  
The thing that truly confused Ginny was that Draco insisted on buying all the clothes a few sizes larger then what actually fit. When she asked why he refused to answer, insisting he'd explain later.  
  
"I think we have everything we can buy here." Draco said, peering into his bag, "We've just got one more stop."  
  
"You really know what you're doing, don't you?" Ginny noted, slinging her arm over his shoulder so that he could support her.  
  
"I've dreamt about running away every day since I was about nine." He told her, "I've had a pretty clear plan of what I'd need to do since I was twelve. I've had to adjust some of the ideas because of you, but it's pretty much going to plan."  
  
"So where are we going now?" She asked.  
  
"Knockturn Alley."  
  
***  
  
Knockturn Alley was like no place Ginny had ever seen before. The people were all very scary. One man had tried to grab her, and would have succeeded if Draco had not produced a stinging curse.  
  
"We're here." He told her, indicating to a small rundown shop.  
  
Inside Ginny was immediately overcome with the smell of incense, which she knew immediately was to cover up the smell of something much nastier.  
  
"Hello Master Malfoy, what a surprise to see you here!" Exclaimed an annoying voice. A tiny man with a lot of frizzy grey hair coming from all over his face had appeared at the counter and was beaming at them.  
  
"I'm sorry, you seem to be mistaken, my name is Nathaniel." Draco said.  
  
"Nathaniel, eh?" Said the man, "And what can I do for you, Nathaniel?"  
  
"I'd like two charms, very specific ones." He explained, "One for me and my cousin here. We're in a bit of money trouble, and need to look a bit.different."  
  
"Oh, I know exactly what you need. Mind you." The man paused, and looked at them slyly, "These things don't come cheap, and if you're having money problems."  
  
"We can afford them." Draco snapped.  
  
"Ok, ok, I was just saying. Do you have any preferences?" He smiled leeringly at Ginny, "Like would your charming cousin here like to keep her beautiful red hair. It really is quite lovely."  
  
"No, we both need our hair colours changed." The boy thought for a moment, "The same colour if you can. Oh, and can you make her ugly?"  
  
"D-Nathaniel!" Ginny burst out, almost using his real name.  
  
"I wouldn't even dream of making such a lovely girl ugly. And it really is a shame about her hair." He caught Draco's look, "But if you're sure. Well, I have got something. A brother and sister, they lived about two hundred years ago. I just got them in, so they'll be expensive. Both have black hair, quite tallish. The girl's hair is fairly similar to your cousins, long and curly, but the boy's hair is shorter than your own. They're good looking, although I'd describe the girl as handsome rather than pretty."  
  
"We'll take them." Draco said, reaching into his purse, "How much?"  
  
"Two hundred Galleons for the both of 'em." The man told them, and Draco sighed unhappily.  
  
"I guess we'll be needing to go back to Gringotts." He said, holding out his hand for Ginny to place her purse in. She did so, with a great amount of reluctance. Draco poured the coins out onto the table, and started counting them. While he was doing so the shop owner had started to inspect their baggage.  
  
"Those look very expensive." He said, indicating to the bags, "I thought you two had money problems, but it looks to me like you're throwing a lot of money around.  
  
"Those are presents from my Uncle, Emily's father." Draco said, his voice tight, "And this is the last bit of money we have except a few Galleons in Gringotts." Ginny was impressed with the ease with which he lied, "And here's your two hundred Galleons. Can we have the potions please?"  
  
The man slipped behind the counter, and came out with two small flasks. They both had blue liquids in them, but one was darker than the other.  
  
"The darker one is for you Nathaniel, and the lighter one for the charming Emily." He said, passing them the flasks. Draco placed them in his pockets, and then pulled out his wand.  
  
"I'm sorry about this." He said softly, "Don't worry, we won't take the money back, we just can't have you remembering our faces."  
  
"What?" The man looked panicked, "What are you going to do?"  
  
"We'll write you a note, explaining what happened." Draco assured him, before raising his wand "Obliviate!"  
  
The man's face relaxed, and his eyes stared blankly ahead. Draco quickly grabbed a quill and wrote something down quickly.  
  
"Poor man." He said as they left.  
  
"That really was horrible of you." Ginny agreed, "But at least you wrote that note explaining what you'd done."  
  
"I felt bad. I think it's your influence." He scowled at her.  
  
"To Gringotts?" She asked, and he nodded.  
  
This time their visit was brief, simply collecting more money as Goblin's raised their hairless eyebrows. No one said anything strange to them, and they were referred to as Master and Miss Bowcott.  
  
"What are these potions anyway?" Ginny asked as Draco pulled them out of his pocket.  
  
"A variation of sorts on the basic Polyjuice Potion." He explained, "Much more complicated though. It can only be done with the help of the ghosts of dead witches and wizards. They place part of their essence in the potion, and whoever drinks it gets transformed into them until they drink the antidote. Unlike the Polyjuice Potion it doesn't wear off, but it's thought useless because you can only turn into people who are known to be dead. It's quite good for us though."  
  
"So we're drinking essence of dead people?" She asked, looking uncertain.  
  
"Grow up Weasley, it's not that bad." Closing his eyes he swallowed a mouthful of his potion, and grimaced. Quickly he put the stopper back on, placed it down on the floor, and fell to his knees.  
  
The transformation was horrible. Ginny looked away, unable to look at Draco's half transformed body, and his face twisted in pain. When his groans of pain subsided she turned around, and almost gasped. The boy who stood in front of her was almost six foot, and was very handsome. His black hair was slightly ruffled, and he had light brown eyes, which were shadowed with long lashes.  
  
"Your turn." He said, and looked quite startled at the sound of his voice, "and give me the bottle once you drunk some, I don't want you to drop it."  
  
She nodded, and put the flask to her lips. It didn't taste very nice, but not disgusting either, just quite bitter. She handed Draco the bottle, just before the pain shot threw her. Her legs buckled, and she, just as Draco had, dropped to the floor. She felt her fingers stretch first, then her arms. The pain shot threw her whole body, and a gasp escaped her lips. Then, just as quickly as it had come, it was gone, and she was able to stand up.  
  
"That hurt." She sighed. Her voice was much stronger than before, and slightly melodic.  
  
"Didn't it just?" He laughed, "You're clothes are too small."  
  
"So are yours!" She exclaimed.  
  
"Aren't you glad I bought larger clothes then?" He asked.  
  
"Yeah, I guess, but how'd you know we'd get tall people?"  
  
"I wanted to be tall." He told her promptly, "I would have asked for different ones if they weren't tall."  
  
"That's so pointless Mal-" She begun, but then stopped. Her mouth stayed hanging open, her eyes staring blindly forward. Her skin was much paler than it had been when she looked normal, and it made her look almost ghostly.  
  
"Oh, no, not again." Draco said angrily, taking hold of her hand, "Weasley, Weasley! Wake up!"  
  
But it was no use. She was back where he couldn't reach her. Not out of her mind, but buried deep inside it.  
  
***  
  
Please review! 


	5. What Of The Others?

Disclaimer: This is so boring! It's not mine, its J.K.Rowling's. She'd sue my arse if I didn't say it.  
  
***  
  
Thank you's: My Beta Dom, Smoothie (Look at you go!), icanreadncount, snogging withdrawal, shadowmenatemyjello, J wish, Raven Eid, Karen1,  
  
Thank you all for reviewing!  
  
***  
  
A.N.: Last chapter I completely forgot to mention any of the other characters, and for this I apologize, especially since I made a promise to Bella Mia all those chapters ago. This chapter you get your wish(. This chapter is focussed on all the other characters, and no mention will be made to Ginny or Draco (and believe me, he complained).  
  
*** What Of The Others? ***  
  
Dumbledore sat at his desk, looking around at his office. It was nearing the end of the half term holidays, and the school was emptier then he had ever remembered. All the parents were terrified that Hogwarts was about to be attacked, and they therefore wanted their children safe at home. He didn't know how to make them understand that Hogwarts was the safest place for them.  
  
A knock startled him, and he realised sadly that he really was getting old. He should have known that someone was coming to the door. He senses were dulling.  
  
"Come in." He called, and smiled when Minerva walked in, but it faded slightly when he saw her expression, "What has happened? Another attack?"  
  
"No, nothing so terrible, just something worrying." She explained, and handed him a piece of parchment, "Severus just received it, and he is quite worried."  
  
The parchment was opened, and the wax was broken, but Dumbledore recognized it as the Malfoy Seal. He disliked Lucius Malfoy greatly, but felt that young Draco had some good in him, and it could only be Draco that this letter was about.  
  
Dear Severus, I understand that we are not on the best terms, mainly because of your.disloyalty, but as my son's head of house it is to you I must write this letter. Draco will not be returning to Hogwarts after the holidays, in fact, he will not be returning at all. I have decided that his education would be best carried out in a different environment, and am pleased to say that he has been accepted to a very prestigious school. I will ask that you do not try to contact him, as your role as his teacher is now over. Any attempt you do make will be seen as overstepping your bounds, and certain measures will be put in place to assure my sons safety. Yours sincerely  
  
Lucius Malfoy  
  
"What do you think Albus?" Minerva asked after he placed the letter down on his desk.  
  
"Many things, but most importantly that Lucius Malfoy has lost control of his son, and is trying to hide it from us." Dumbledore said, he pale blue eyes darkened with anger, "And that he intends to dispose of his son when he finds him."  
  
"We have to stop him!" The sever woman's eyes were softened, and on the verge of tears, "We should have realised that something was wrong when we got all those alerts about him using magic. It's just that he always does, and the Ministry is too scared of Lucius to do anything about it. We have to find him."  
  
"We must, but Draco will not have made it easy for us. No doubt he has gone into hiding, and it will be quite difficult for me to track him down."  
  
"But you can do it?" Minerva asked.  
  
"Yes, but that is not the only task we have." His eyes levelled with hers, and it was clear that this mission was falling to her, "We have to find out what made Draco run away, and what has made Lucius want to kill his only heir."  
  
***  
  
Lucius threw the paperweight at Damien Zabini, who barely ducked in time.  
  
"This isn't my fault!" Damien shouted angrily. It had been a day since Draco's kidnap of Weasley, and there was no sign of him, "If you hadn't started beating him like you had, he wouldn't have done this."  
  
"Don't you dare tell me how to raise my son." The taller man growled, "I can't believe that you were unable to disarm a sixteen-year-old!"  
  
"I can't believe that you can't find him! Where could he hide?" Zabini demanded.  
  
"I don't know! I went to Gringotts and cancelled his account, so he won't have any money, but there was something strange there. They were so.polite. Yes, I know they're always polite, but it was different this time." Malfoy sighed, collapsing on his chair, "We're going to have to tell him."  
  
"What does it matter? The experiment was a failure anyway." He shrugged, looking at all the screens that were now empty, "All that's left is to track down the children and kill them."  
  
"You do realise that you're asking me to murder my own son."  
  
"Yes." Zabini nodded, "Why?"  
  
"Oh, no reason, I was just checking that we were on the same page."  
  
***  
  
Dean Thomas sat in his room his eyes closed gently. He could hear his brother pounding music through the walls and was trying to tune it out. His whole family were Muggles, and the only thing they could comprehend about the situation was that his girlfriend had been killed in an accident. They couldn't understand that it was murder, and that there was going to be a lot more of it.  
  
"Dean." His mother poked her head round the door, "Do you want something to eat?"  
  
"No." He answered bluntly, much to his mother's disappointment.  
  
"Oh, come on, just a bite?" She wheedled, but he just turned his back to her, and a moment later she left.  
  
He got up and walked to his draw, taking out a few of his drawing pads. Most were from before Ginny had died, and many were pictures of her. He had always prided himself on his drawing skills, and his pictures of her reflected most of his skills. It looked sometimes like the pictures were alive, almost as if they were moving. He could almost see the twinkle in her brown eyes.  
  
But the pictures from after Ginny's death were different. There was no twinkle in her eyes, and they all looked slightly wrong, out of proportion somehow. It was as if all his pictures had captured a bit of her essence, and now that she was dead, that essence wasn't there anymore. All the pictures he drew of her now were dead. She was gone, and her beauty could no longer be trapped on paper. As he looked at his previous drawings, he could see them loose their light too, as every thing that made Ginny who she was slipped out of them.  
  
He couldn't know it, people never could, but it wasn't Ginny's death that had caused this loss, it was death inside of him.  
  
***  
  
Harry stood by the grave of his Godfather, looking at the sun set. Ron and Hermione had offered to come with him, but he had wanted to come alone. It had been months since the man's death, but the pain Sirius's memory caused was still fresh.  
  
"Hi." He whispered, sitting down in front of it, "Sorry I havn't visited in a while, there's been school and stuff."  
  
He pulled the dead flowers off the grave and replaced them, smiling weakly. It was a cold day, and it was getting dark, but Harry had no intention of going back to the Weasley's yet.  
  
"I know I havn't visited since the summer, and I'm sorry, but so much has been happening, there wasn't time." He looked down sadly, "Ginny and Neville are dead, but I guess you probably know that, wherever you are. It was the Death Eater's; they blew up Flourish and Blotts. Ron got inside afterwards, it was pretty bad. He didn't see Ginny, thank god, but he did see Neville. He's doing well, I suppose, better then I did after you died. He's not being stupid and pushing us away, he's pulling us close, like he's scared that if he doesn't he'll loose us too. And I can't tell him that he won't because he might. Ginny and Neville and the other's, they're just the first. People are going to keep on dying, and people are going to expect me to do something about it. When you were around I felt that if I failed it was ok, coz you'd like me all the same, but what about now? There's The Weasley's, I guess, and Hermione, but it's not the same."  
  
He stood up, wiping his eyes of the tears that had appeared, "Sorry bout that, I try not to cry." He smiled crookedly at the gravestone, "Me and Remus will come by soon. We're both staying with the Weasley's at the moment, but I've got a room in his apartment, and I stayed there a lot over the summer. We're talking about moving into your old house, coz I'd be safe there, but I dunno. I'll see you soon."  
  
With that he walked back to the old church house, and flooed home.  
  
***  
  
It had been like this for weeks, they'd act normal while there were people with them, play fight, joke around, but as soon as they were alone they'd fall into each other's arms.  
  
Harry had left soon after dinner, and they had quickly excused themselves, and returned to Ron's room. They had sat on the bed for a moment, not doing anything, and then Ron had lifted his hand to her head, and taken a lock of her golden brown hair between his fingers.  
  
"You're beautiful, you know that?" He whispered. She closed her eyes, and shook her head. She never knew what to say when he complimented her, "You really are. I don't know how I never noticed it before."  
  
"Oh Ron." She sighed, laughter in her voice, "I'm not."  
  
"Yes you are Hermione, you're beautiful." He kissed her eyelids, stroking her face, "I don't know what I'd do without you."  
  
"You'd do fine, silly." But deep in her heart she knew he wouldn't. The first time they had kissed he had cried, silently. He thought she hadn't noticed, but she had noticed the tear drops on her collar.  
  
"Hermione.do you love me?" He asked quietly. The question startled her for a moment, and the hesitation caused Ron to stop.  
  
"Oh Ron. Yes, I love you." It wasn't exactly true, but it was only a half lie. She'd be in love with him soon enough. And besides, when he muttered into her ear over and over that he loved her, she knew that it was only a half-truth too.  
  
***  
  
Sorry for a pitifully short chapter, but it was just to make up for the lack of any other characters in the last one. Hope you're happy Bella Mia! 


	6. In Russia

Disclaimer: Not mine  
  
Thanks to: My Beta Dom, and to my one reviewer for the last chapter, icanreadandcount. I thought Dean should get a mention.  
  
***  
  
To Russia  
  
***  
  
It was a beautiful memory, Ginny had to admit. It was just the sort of place she should have realised he'd bring up.  
  
The summer before she was to start Hogwarts her father had taken her aside and asked if she wanted to go on a broomstick ride. She'd been thrilled, and had said yes immediately. They had left in the early afternoon, and had arrived at their destination near dusk.  
  
It was a beach, and it seemed to Ginny to span forever. The sun was beginning to set and the sea and sky were a blur of reds and oranges.  
  
Once there, he had sat down and motioned for her to sit next to him. He put his arm around her in a way that he hadn't done since she was a small child.  
  
"I know it may seem that I pay more attention to your brothers than you," He had whispered, "But I just want you to know that you're more than your mother and I could have ever wished for. You've brought us so much happiness, and we'll miss you when you start Hogwarts."  
  
They had sat on the beach until long after dark, and she fell asleep on the way back, instinctively holding tight onto her father to prevent falling off.  
  
"I wish you wouldn't go through my memories." She sighed, looking at the good-looking boy next to her.  
  
"I think this one is just charming." He replied.  
  
"Are we going to go through the same thing we did last time? With you trying to convince me to give up my body so you can join You-Know-Who?" She asked.  
  
"I have no intention of joining up with my older counter part." He said angrily. Ginny noticed how perfect the expression was, how his frown was only slightly deep, the corner of his lips only slightly turned down. Not too exaggerated. Of course it was an act. Tom would never let her see his true emotions. Every look, every passing thought, was carefully measured out so he looked human. Sometimes he would even let her see a look of surprise, which he would quickly cover up, hiding the weakness. It was all an act of course. She couldn't trust anything she saw on his face.  
  
"And why are we deep in thought?" He asked, "Why bother hiding things from me? Just say what you think. If you don't I'll just check later on, after you've left."  
  
"You want me to speak my mind?" Ginny laughed, not feeling at all amused, "You want me to tell the great Tom Riddle my deepest thoughts and feelings? No way. I don't care if you rummage through my mind later; I'm not going to make things any easier for you."  
  
"So contrary." Tom's eyes twinkled with mischief, "I think you should be a little more helpful. Besides, I have another idea now."  
  
"And what's that?" Ginny asked, slightly cautious.  
  
"I no longer want your body. I don't think I'd enjoy being a girl, and the very thought of having to deal with your hair everyday is very off- putting." He explained, "No, I have a better idea. I want his body, the boy you're with at the moment."  
  
"You want Malfoy's body!" She couldn't hide her surprise or revulsion.  
  
"Don't look so disgusted Ginny, I thought you'd be happy!" He walked towards her, and she backed up immediately, "I thought you wanted me out of your body. It's a very good idea. You just tell that boy, Malfoy, that I'd be willing to enter his body; it really would be very good for all of us. I'd be willing to share power with him, and I wouldn't have to be in control all the time. Besides, he's not incredibly ugly. And it's not as if you like him at all, so why would you care?"  
  
"I won't let you loose on anyone. I can't even begin to imagine the damage you'd do if you got free." Ginny, on a random impulse, kicked sand at the boy, her anger mounting, "I won't let you have him!"  
  
"Really Ginny, calm down." He said, looking down at her. His look only made her angrier, and she kicked sand at him again, then picked up a clump and threw it at his face.  
  
"You bastard! Get out of my head!" He grabbed hold of her, and she struggled wildly.  
  
"Stop it, you stupid girl!" His face was growing red as he tried to hold her still, "Stop it!"  
  
The scene was blurring, colours were running into each other, and her body was numbing.  
  
***  
  
Draco had led the un-responding Ginny to the Leaky Cauldron, which they could now enter without being recognized. The bartender had taken them to a backroom, giving Ginny a very odd look.  
  
"My cousin has some difficulties." Draco had quickly explained, and the man had nodded and walked away.  
  
Ten minutes later Ginny had started talking. At first he thought that she had woken up, but her eyes were still staring blankly ahead.  
  
"I'm not going to make things any easier for you." "What's that?" "I won't let you have him!" "Get out of my head!"  
  
The last one had been a scream, and Draco had quickly covered up her mouth. She fluttered her eyes slightly, and then focused her eyes. It seemed to take her a moment to realise who he was.  
  
"Malfoy?" She asked, confusion in her voice.  
  
"No, Nathaniel, remember?" He grinned.  
  
"Oh yeah, sorry." She looked down at herself, and looked slightly sick, "I'm really tall."  
  
"I thought you'd be happy you're not a midget anymore." Draco said, and was quite surprised when she looked at him, anger on her face.  
  
"I wish everyone would stop telling me that I ought to be happy!" She exclaimed, "First Tom, and now you!"  
  
"Huh? What did Riddle say you should be happy about?" He asked, worry in his voice. He vaguely remembered her shouting something about no letting him have some one.  
  
"Um, nothing." She looked embarrassed, but didn't blush. Draco supposed it was because of the new body, as Ginny normally blushed when he so much as looked at her.  
  
"Weasley, I'm the one saving you here, I think you should tell me whatever you've heard." He pointed out.  
  
"You're probably only doing it because if you don't then your father has no reason to keep you alive, and you'll have no evidence to go to the Ministry with if I'm dead." She snapped, and Draco knew that she was actually correct, "Anyway, why would you want to know about the ravings of a psychopath?"  
  
"You're not a psychopath, you're just a little crazy." He tried to reassure her, but the look on her face suggested that he'd said the wrong thing again.  
  
"I meant Tom, not me." She said angrily.  
  
"Yeah, I knew that." He muttered, "Whatever. What did Riddle say anyway?"  
  
"He said that. that. he'd much rather have your body then mine, and that you'd probably be happy with the arrangement." The look in her eyes what almost heartbreaking. She was begging him to say that it wasn't true; that he wasn't evil enough to share his body was Riddle. On this he could reassure her, but not for the right reason. His objection with sharing a body with Riddle wouldn't be the harm the boy would do, it was the idea of having to share his power.  
  
"Don't worry little Weasel, I'm not happy about the idea of having a psychotic wizard living in my head." She smiled, and Draco felt slightly bad, because now she thought that deep down he was a good person. In actual fact, the reason he hated his father and You-Know-Who so much was the thought of having to be ruled by them, and not because he was particularly opposed to their ideas.  
  
"Well, I'll tell him that next time he drags me into the deepest darkest pits of my mind." She said, and tried to stand up. Apparently she had forgotten that her muscles were half wasted, and her sudden movement was too much. She collapsed to the floor, and Draco bolted to her side to help her up.  
  
"You ok?" He asked, and she nodded. Carefully he pulled her up onto the chair she had been resting in, and brushed her hair out of her face. It was so different from the fiery curls he was used to, and the eyes he revealed were different too. Ginny's eyes were dark, and soft kindly, although he had never really noticed that until after he'd rescued her. The eyes that looked at him now were a light hazel colour, and where far colder than before. The coldness, he knew, suited him, but looked strange on her.  
  
"We need to get changed into our new clothes." She said after a while, "These ones are really uncomfortable."  
  
"Okay. How about I turn my back and you change, then you turn yours, and I'll get changed?" He asked.  
  
"I don't trust you." She said bluntly, and he nodded, as it was a fair point.  
  
"Alright, there's a bathroom through that door." He grinned as she glared at him.  
  
"And why didn't you suggest that first?" She asked.  
  
"Because I'm a young man, and there was a chance I could get you to get unchanged in the same room as me, so I went for it." He answered casually.  
  
"There was never a chance." And with that she slipped through the door, grabbing her travelling trunk on the way.  
  
He sighed as he pulled off the now too small robes and pulled on the new ones. With all honesty he had no idea what they were going to do next. He scraped his mind, looking for some memory to do with possessions. His father had once mentioned a man who lived in Russia who was an expert on them, so they could visit him. If that didn't work, there was the Centaurs of Greenpine Valley in France who were well disposed towards wizards and were known to use ancient magics in order to help them if given the right initiative. So, Russia first, then France, and if they couldn't find the help needed there, they could at least ask if they knew who could help.  
  
"You decent?" Ginny asked, opening the door a crack.  
  
"Never." he called back with a cocky grin, and she entered. She looked lovely in dark blue robes, but Draco couldn't help but feel that she would look lovelier in her true form. Unlike him, she had natural beauty, and their disguises didn't do her justice.  
  
"What now?" She asked, running her hands over the fabrics that made up her robe. He reminded himself that she would be quite unused to such expensive material.  
  
"Russia, my father once mentioned a man who lived there. He might be able to help." Draco explained, "We should go now, and find somewhere to stay tonight."  
  
"Ok." She nodded, and the two of them left the room.  
  
***  
  
"The owl's returned Albus." McGonagall sighed unhappily as she sat down in front of the Headmaster.  
  
"I suspected it would." Dumbledore nodded, "I suspect that Draco has some sort of item that prevents him from being located using magical methods, perhaps an Untraceable Shroud. I seem to recall someone telling me that Lucius had bought him one for his birthday."  
  
"No, it was Vincent Crabbe who received the Untraceable Shroud. But you're right, Draco probably does have something of the sort." The woman peered at her companion over her spectacles, "What are we going to do?"  
  
"Keep on trying. Severus has got in contact with several of his sources; one of them may have some news. But we cannot place all our efforts into finding the boy. The students return tonight, and this is still a school, and we must teach." A sad thought seemed to have occurred to the old man, and his eyes became dark and troubled, "I'm afraid we must take this to the Ministry, even though they do seem to be becoming more and more useless. We'll ask them to force a definite location from Lucius Malfoy, and as there isn't one, we will then ask them to declare him officially missing."  
  
"Do you wish me to see to it Albus?" McGonagall asked.  
  
"Please Minerva." Dumbledore nodded. After his colleague had left he stood up and walked to his window. The countryside seemed to span forever, and yet he knew that it was only the tiniest bit of land, "Where are you, my boy?"  
  
***  
  
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dean and Seamus shared a compartment on the way back to Hogwarts, and were surprised to see Crabbe and Goyle wandering up and down the corridors, apparently looking for Malfoy. Eventually they burst in and fixed their glares on Harry.  
  
"Where is he?" Crabbe asked. He was the smarter of the two boys, but that wasn't saying much.  
  
"Who?" Seamus asked, looking puzzled.  
  
"Malfoy." Crabbe turned to look at the Irish boy.  
  
"You don't even call him by his first name!" Ron said, astounded, "What sort of friends are you?"  
  
"Shut up Weasel." The smaller boy growled. Goyle hadn't said a word since they burst in.  
  
"We havn't seen your stupid friend." Hermione snapped, "This is very irresponsible of him, he's supposed to be a prefect."  
  
"Shut up Mudblood!" Crabbe, to everyone's surprise pulled out a wand and pointed it and Hermione, whose mouth formed a tiny 'o' of surprise, "Who are you to judge him? You have no right!"  
  
But before he could cast a spell, Harry, Ron, Dean and Seamus had pulled out their wands, and the intruders found themselves having two wands pointing at them each.  
  
"I think you should leave." Harry said darkly. He cast a worried look at Ron, whose hand was shaking with anger as he glared at Crabbe. Harry knew that Ron and Hermione were now seeing each other, even though they had tried to keep it a secret. He couldn't trust Ron not to loose it and blast a hole in Crabbe as punishment for threatening Hermione.  
  
"Now." Dean added, when the boys didn't move, "It's not our fault your friend abandoned you, so just go."  
  
After a moment's hesitation, Goyle nodded and turned around, pulling Crabbe with him. The four boys relaxed, and Ron placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder to comfort her.  
  
"So Malfoy's missing, eh?" Seamus said after a moment, "Wonder what that's about?"  
  
"Maybe he's left." Harry said hopefully, "And he just couldn't be bothered to tell his goons."  
  
"I think that that's quite possibly the best news I've heard this year." Ron said, squeezing Hermione's hand. She smiled at him, and Seamus started making kissing sounds to annoy them.  
  
Malfoy had tormented Harry and his friends for over five years, and he couldn't think of anyone he disliked more, except Voldemort. He didn't want to get his hopes up, but it really was looking like the boy had left.  
  
***  
  
"And how may I help you?" Asked the man at the Floo Network. Although it cost nothing to enter Diagon Alley through the Floo Network, you did have to pay to use it to go somewhere else, and it could be very expensive.  
  
"Two to Floo to Russia." Draco said, reaching for his moneybag.  
  
"Russia! Well, that's a big place my boy, at least tell me what city you want to go to." The man had thin eyebrows and a reedy voice, but Ginny couldn't help but find him quite likable.  
  
"Um, I'm not really sure." Said Draco, looking uncomfortable.  
  
"You don't know the city?" Ginny's voice sounded unbelieving, "Ma- Nathaniel! Didn't you think about this before?"  
  
"I'm sorry." He snapped haughtily, "I didn't even think about going to Russia till about half an hour ago! Um, let me think. We need to go and see a man called Ivan Noginski. He's our uncle, quite famous."  
  
"Professor Noginski? Isn't he the Defence Against Dark Arts teacher at Poltrick?" The man asked.  
  
"Yes, that's right." Every word coming from Draco's mouth at this point seemed to be a lie or a half-truth, "He used to travel a lot. We really need to go and see him, my father is ill."  
  
"And you didn't know what city his school is in?" The man looked suspicious.  
  
"Father told me, but I forgot."  
  
"My dear cousin is very forgetful, I really wish Uncle had left the information with me." Ginny stepped forward, brushing an indignant Draco out of her way, "Of course I understand that you can't Floo us directly into Poltrick, we'd need to get all sorts of permission and such, but we really don't have enough time, as my uncle, Nathaniel's father, is very ill. So could you just get us as near as possible?"  
  
"Didn't he just say that he's only just thought of going to Russia?" At this Ginny sighed and glared at Draco, who shrugged. Carefully she leant over and whispered something into the man's ear. He nodded, glanced strangely at Draco, and led them to a blazing fireplace, "The grate is 'Hematic Manor, Olcove, Russia'. It's a Hotel, if you wish to stay the night." He smiled at Ginny, glanced nervously at Draco, and walked away.  
  
"What did you tell him about me?" Draco asked.  
  
"Oh, nothing." Ginny waved the question away.  
  
"No, you're lying. Tell me!" He pleaded.  
  
"Fine, I just told him that you were slightly delusional." She threw the Floo Powder into the fire, stepped in and shouted 'Hematic Manor, Olcove, Russia!' before he could even respond.  
  
"Wha-? Hey!" He shouted indignantly, quickly following her.  
  
***  
  
Harry and his friends were grateful when they arrived in the Great hall. It had been a cold night, and the warmth of the castle was welcomed. They took their seats at the Gryffindor table, and looked up at the Staff table to try and catch Hagrid's eye. He waved happily at them, but Harry's eye was caught by Dumbledore and McGonagall. They were sat next to each other; their heads bent low in conversation and worried looks on their faces. Finally Dumbledore gave a sharp nod, and they turned towards their students.  
  
"For those of you who went home this holiday, welcome back." Dumbledore said, standing up. But although his words were cheerful, he looked troubled, and his voice was low and sombre.  
  
Oh God, please don't let there have been another attack, prayed Harry, and from the looks on Ron and Hermione's faces, they were thinking the same thing.  
  
"I have some troubling news, something that may distress some of you." The Headmaster continued, "And although it has not been confirmed by the Ministry, it is obvious to my colleagues and I. Many of you know, and are friends with Draco Malfoy, and I'm sorry to say that he has gone missing. If any of you have any ideas as to where he might be, please inform us immediately. If you wish to remain anonymous, you can owl us using the school owls. I think that is all? You may now eat."  
  
The food filled up the table, and many people began eating immediately, but not Harry, Ron and Hermione. They glanced at each other, and then turned to look at the Slytherin table.  
  
Several Slytherins looked stunned, and Pansy Parkinson looked near tears. Ron nudged Harry and Hermione, and indicated to the pretty dark haired girl who sat next to Crabbe.  
  
"That's Blaise Zabini." Hermione whispered. Harry could see immediately why Ron had pointed her out. She was biting her bottom lip, also looking like she was about to cry. But there was something else. She didn't look sad, she looked terrified. And it really didn't look like she was scared for Malfoy. Later on that night Ron described her expression perfectly. It was after dinner, and the three friends were sitting in the Gryffindor common room.  
  
"It looked like she had been caught doing something really bad, and was about to be punished." He said, a worried expression on his face, "I reckon she knows what's happened to Malfoy."  
  
"What do you thinks happened to him?" Hermione asked them.  
  
"I don't know." Harry admitted, and then clenched his teeth angrily, "I was so pleased at the thought that he'd left, and now I'm bloody well worried about him!"  
  
"I'm not." Ron said, leaning back, "That git deserves what he gets."  
  
"But what if his father is going to sacrifice him, or something horrible like that?" Hermione asked, tears filling her eyes, "I know he's a horrible person, but does he really deserve that?"  
  
"You want to find out, don't you?" Ron said, amazed, "After all the horrible thing's he's done to us, you still want to find out what's happened, and maybe help him. You're such a softie, such a.girl."  
  
"Humph, what do you think Harry?" Hermione turned to her other friend.  
  
"I reckon. we should at least try." He decided.  
  
"You're all bloody mad!" Ron exclaimed, but they both knew that he would help.  
  
***  
  
When they arrived at Hematic Manor, they were greeted by a small attractive young woman in her early twenties. A rictus smile appeared on her face as soon as she saw the size of Malfoy's moneybag, and then spoke in very fast Russian. Ginny looked at Draco, panic on her face, but he just smiled, and spoke back, in what sounded to Ginny like fluent Russian.  
  
She asked him.  
  
He said,   
  
She turned to Ginny   
  
Ginny's eyes opened wide and she looked terrified, "What did she say Malfoy?"  
  
"She asked to take your cloak." He explained   
  
She took the cloak that Ginny had now passed her, and called for some assistance. Two young men came and took their cases, looking at the woman for instructions, She indicated to Draco and Ginny to follow her, which they did.  
  
She led them to a desk, where she pulled out a large book, and flicked it open to the right page,   
  
Draco said, pulling out his moneybag.  
  
The young woman asked.  
  
He asked.  
  
She said smiling. Draco struggled to hide his surprise, and the woman laughed,   
  
He said,   
  
After the money was exchanged, he and Ginny were handed a key and were led up to their room.  
  
"What were you talking about?" Ginny asked.  
  
"I was asking about Noginski, and how we could see him." Draco explained, "He's holding a lecture tomorrow, and we're going. Hopefully we can catch him after he's done."  
  
"That woman was flirting with you." She said after a while, frowning slightly.  
  
"Were you jealous?" He asked, a leering grin on his lips.  
  
"It's not that, it's just that she's twenty something, and even in your disguise you still only look seventeen at most." She shrugged, "It was just disgusting, that's all."  
  
"I think you were jealous." Draco maintained. As she was about to reply, the man who was leading them to their room coughed, and indicated to the door. Draco unlocked it, and heard Ginny gasp behind him when he opened the door.  
  
The room was huge, and ornately decorated. It had two King-size double beds, a seating area with several large comfortable looking chairs, and a quite large table with candles lit on it. A door on the right led to what Draco supposed would be the bathroom. He'd need to investigate that further.  
  
"Malfoy, look at this room! How can we afford it?" She looked at him sharply, "Did you ask for this room?"  
  
"What? No, of course not, it was the only one they had left." He lied quickly, and she seemed to accept that.  
  
"It's so beautiful." She whispered, sitting down on one of the beds. Draco nodded at the man, telling him to leave, and quickly put silencing spells all over the room, "That's a bit paranoid." Ginny said when she realised what he was doing.  
  
"I'd rather be paranoid then dead." He replied, "But now that that's done, we get to go on to the fun part of staying in hotels."  
  
"What's that?" She asked.  
  
"Room service." He said happily.  
  
*** 


	7. Wine, Blaise and Aidan

Thank you's to My Beta Dom, icanreadandcount (This time Draco gets jealous), s n o o g i n g Withdrawal (Everyone loves the room service), Echo256 and Latrikana.  
  
***  
  
Wine, Blaise and Aidan  
  
***  
  
"Let's order more wine." Draco declared happily as he tried to walk in a straight line. Ginny was sprawled on her bed, laughing.  
  
"More wine? How many bottles have we drunk already?" She asked.  
  
"Only three, I'm sure we can handle more than that." He had given up on walking in a straight line and had collapsed next to her, laughing.  
  
"Maybe you can, but I can't." Ginny admitted tipsily, "I've only ever had maybe a single glass at my parent's parties. Have we really drunk three bottles?"  
  
"I think I'm responsible for two of them, but you've certainly had one." He frowned a moment, thinking about what she had just said, "Are you telling me that Gryffindors don't have parties with lots of drinking and snogging?"  
  
"No! I mean, of course we don't. Fred and George used to sometimes sneak up Butter Beer from the kitchens, but that did nothing." She smiled slightly, "Besides, how much drinking and snogging could you expect me to do with Ron and the Twins in the room?"  
  
"Good point." He conceded, "We had parties in Slytherin all the time. I've kissed every girl in my year, and lots in yours. I've even had my share of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs."  
  
"That's disgusting Malfoy." She declared. She certainly looked disgusted, and this was even more pronounced when she started to turn green, "Oh, I feel sick!"  
  
And with that she threw herself off the bed, and bolted for the bathroom, stumbling a few times out of a mixture of her drunkenness and her weak body.  
  
"You alright?" He called, and was replied by the sound of her throwing up. Not actually sure of what to do, he opened the door slightly, and slid inside.  
  
She was hunched over the toilette, throwing up. He sat by her side, and nervously patted her hair. She stayed like that for a few minutes more, before getting up and grabbing some tissue to clean her mouth.  
  
"Water." She whispered, and he complied quickly, going into the main room to grab the small room service bell. He shook it once, and a house elf appeared by his side, grinning.  
  
He asked in Russian.  
  
It wasn't until the house elf had flashed away, did he realise that he had asked the elf, instead of just demanding it. This was probably the alcohol's fault. The house elf reappeared with a tray. On the tray was a glass of water and a bottle filled with light purple syrup.  
  
Said the house elf with a smile, before disappearing.  
  
"I've got your stuff." He called, passing Ginny the water. She took it, and drank quickly. It took Draco a moment to realise that she'd been crying.  
  
"What's the matter?" He asked.  
  
"I'm dead." She said, looking forlorn.  
  
"No you're not; the Ministry just think you are." He said, patting her shoulder, "When we get you cured we'll go back to England, and we'll sort everything out."  
  
"No, I'm really dead, I bet they have it written down on an official piece of paper!" She hung her head and started sobbing. Not knowing quite what else to do, Draco started to examine the bottle the house elf had given him. It was written in Russian, which was unfortunate, as he couldn't read Russian half as well as he could speak and understand it. It took him a little while to translate the text. It turned out to be something that reversed the effects of alcohol. Looking over at the sobbing Ginny, he poured out the required dose and made her drink it. She continued to cry for a moment before sitting up straight, looking horrified.  
  
"Oh my god!" She gasped, struggling to stand up, "I'm so sorry! That was so embarrassing."  
  
"It's ok; I probably won't remember this in the morning." He assured her, standing up.  
  
"What time is it?" She asked, looking around.  
  
"Um, around 4 in the morning." He replied.  
  
"Malfoy, what time do we have to be up by?"  
  
"The Port Key leaves at nine."  
  
"Oh god, I really need to sleep, we'll have to be up at half seven." And with that she left the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Draco was about to follow when he realised that she was probably getting changed. Further thoughts led him to shrug, and push open the door anyway.  
  
"Malfoy!" She shrieked, throwing something heavy at the door.  
  
"Sorry, sorry." He said, grinning, "Didn't know, honest."  
  
***  
  
The letter had come for Blaise just after dinner. She hadn't recognized the writing, but the writer had asked her to meet him at the North Tower at midnight. She had only been back at Hogwarts for a few hours, and she was already breaking rules. But that's how it was when you were a Slytherin.  
  
The halls of Hogwarts were dark, and she could feel the chill caused by the stonewalls, but her heart was beating wildly, and her blood warmed her.  
  
The North Tower was empty! Blaise looked around in surprise, and checked her watch. It was 5 past midnight. Had the writer grown impatient enough to leave so quickly?  
  
A noise to her left surprised her and she jumped as she turned to see who it was. A moment later Ron Weasley's face appeared out of thin air, followed shortly by the rest of his body.  
  
"Weasley?" She hissed too loudly.  
  
"Shhh!" He whispered. Turning around and grouping at midair. He seemed to catch hold of something, and the air turned silver as he dragged it. It was an invisibility cloak, and underneath it were Harry Potter and Hermione Granger.  
  
"What is this, a set-up?" She asked, backing away.  
  
"No, no, it's nothing like that." Granger shook her head, "We just wanted to ask you some questions."  
  
"And what about this letter?" She asked, flapping the piece of paper in front of their faces, "Just a trick?"  
  
"No, Harry wrote and asked you to meet us here." Ron said, looking confused, "He didn't sign it because we didn't think you'd come if you knew who it was from."  
  
"Oh.I thought." Blaise started, blushing. Harry and Hermione realised straight away, and looked uncomfortable, but Ron's look of confusion just became deeper.  
  
"You thought what?" He asked. Hermione quickly stamped on his foot, and he hopped around for a moment, before realisation hit him, "Oh! Um, sorry."  
  
"Forget it." She snapped, "What do you want?"  
  
"We want to ask you about Malfoy." Harry explained. Colour faded from Blaise's face, and she backed into the wall.  
  
"I don't know anything about that." She stammered.  
  
"About what?" Hermione asked.  
  
"About Malfoy's disappearance!"  
  
"We didn't say anything about his disappearance." The brown haired girl said slyly. Blaise winced at her stupidity, "But now that you've brought it up."  
  
"We're just trying to help." Harry said, trying to sound reassuring.  
  
"They're trying to help the stupid git, I'm just tagging along." The red haired boy corrected.  
  
"Ron!" Hermione snapped, rolling her eyes, "I know we don't get along with you Slytherins, but if Malfoy's in real trouble, we can't just ignore it."  
  
"You just love playing the heroes, don't you?" Blaise hissed, "Anything to get a bit of attention."  
  
"Look, I think the question here is, do you want to help Malfoy or not?" Harry asked.  
  
"Of course I want to help him." Blaise said, "I'm just not sure how you could help me."  
  
"Ok, not to blow our own horns or anything, but you are talking to the people who, in out first year got past our teacher's best defences in order to save the Philosophers stone, in our second year Harry faced a basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, in our fourth year Harry made it through a maze of killer beasts, ended up face to face with You-Know-Who and lived, and all three of us at the end of our fifth year took on a group of grown Death Eaters." Hermione took a deep breath, "Not that we're blowing our own horns or anything."  
  
She hadn't mentioned what had happened at the end of their third year as no one was supposed to know, and she didn't want to upset Harry by bringing up Sirius.  
  
"And we're connected to some of the best Aurors of our age." Added Ron.  
  
"Ok, how are you still alive?" Blaise asked, "No, forget it. What do you want from me?"  
  
"We know you know something about Malfoy's disappearance." Harry told her, "We just want to know what you know. It might be really important. We're good at putting thing's together."  
  
"Look, I'd really like to tell you, it's just." Blaise sighed, looking frustrated, "You're Gryffindors, it'd be betraying Slytherin."  
  
"We're trying to help Slytherin here, or don't you want Malfoy back?" Hermione pointed out.  
  
"It's not just Slytherin I'd be betraying." Blaise locked eyes with Hermione, who she seemed to decide was her equal, as she was the only other female there, "If I tell you, you can't go to Dumbledore, or any of your Auror friends."  
  
"We promise." Said Hermione hurriedly.  
  
"This is going to get my father in so much trouble." The dark haired girl said miserably, "I can't believe I'm going to do this."  
  
Ron and Harry glanced at each other, a worried look on their faces. Blaise looked so upset.  
  
"My father spent most of the holidays at the Malfoy Manor, working on something top secret. My father is.he's a.oh god. My father's a Death Eater, along with Lucius Malfoy." Blaise looked up angrily at the three friends, "He's not evil though! He only joined up so that when You-Know-Who takes over, my mother and my sisters and me will be safe. They were working on something really important, but it went wrong because Draco interfered."  
  
"How do you know that?" Ron asked suspiciously.  
  
"I overheard my father telling my mother so." Blaise snapped angrily, "He took something really important. My father called it the Vessel. So Draco's on the run with this thing, and my father and Lucius are after him. When they catch him they'll kill him, and destroy the Vessel."  
  
"Why would they destroy the Vessel?" Harry asked, "If they want it enough to kill Malfoy, why destroy it?"  
  
"I can't believe Lucius would actually kill him own son." Ron said, his voice was filled with horror.  
  
"They don't get on very well." Blaise explained coldly.  
  
"So? I don't get on with Percy, doesn't mean I'm going to kill him." Ron countered.  
  
"It makes sense Ron." Hermione cut in, "They have to kill Malfoy to stop him from telling anyone what he's found out. Once he's been found dead, there'll be a search of Malfoy Manor, and all the other Death Eater homes. They have to get rid of the evidence."  
  
"Do you have any idea what the Vessel is?" Harry asked Blaise.  
  
"Not really. When I was listening to my parents, I heard my father refer to it as a 'she' but he talks about our boat in the same way." The Slytherin shrugged, "It could be a person, or it could be a vase. I think it's more important to find out what it's a vessel for."  
  
"Good point." Hermione nodded, "Thank you Blaise, I know this isn't easy for you."  
  
"I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing it to help Draco." She sighed sadly, "I'll help you when I can, but I can't make any promises."  
  
"Well, at least we know what's happening now." Ron said.  
  
"Do you have any idea what you're going to do?" Blaise asked.  
  
"We'll need to go to the library, find out some tracking spells." Hermione started, but was cut of by Blaise.  
  
"Won't work, Draco's got an amulet to prevent him and anyone with him from being tracked."  
  
"Damn." Harry whispered.  
  
"Look, it's late, we're all tired, we should continue this tomorrow." Hermione said, "We can meet in the Room of Requirements, maybe that'll be some help. We'll owl you with a time."  
  
Blaise nodded, and was about to walk away when Harry called out.  
  
"Um, do you want me to walk you back to the Slytherin dungeons?" He asked, blushing slightly. Blaise looked surprised, and was about to turn him down, when it occurred to her that he was trying to help her. Besides, he had an invisibility cloak, so they wouldn't get caught.  
  
"Um, ok." She said after a moment, and felt slightly pleased about how happy he looked.  
  
As Harry and Blaise walked off Ron turned to Hermione with a sigh.  
  
"It's the dark hair, you know?" He said, taking hold of her hand, "He just can't help himself around girls with black hair. Now me, I prefer brunettes."  
  
"How sweet." She said, smiling warmly at him.  
  
***  
  
Ginny woke up to the smell of burning, and sat up bolt straight, ready to scream. But when she looked around she saw Draco sitting on the floor, a cauldron bubbling on a magical fire in front of him.  
  
"What are you doing?" She asked.  
  
"You're awake? Excellent." He said, smiling at her, "I've almost finished."  
  
"What is it?" She slid out of bed, and peered into the cauldron. The liquid in it was a deep purple.  
  
"An antidote to the potion we drank." He explained, "We still have enough of the original potion to turn back about four more times, and we can make the antidote easily."  
  
"Why are you making the antidote?" Ginny asked.  
  
"It might indicate how important our problem is if Noginski knows that we have to wear a disguise." Draco didn't look at her as he said this, as he was measuring out some liquid amber.  
  
"For someone so paranoid, you seem to be trusting Noginski a lot." She pointed out, "If you're risking revealing our true identity."  
  
"I've heard my father talk about Noginski quite a bit, and they really aren't on good enough terms for him to betray us." He insisted, "In fact, the last time I heard my father speak about him he said 'if I ever see that man again I will curse him to the other side of oblivion'. Noginski wasn't much of a supporter of You-Know-Who, so he and father fell out over it."  
  
"You didn't mention they used to be friends." Ginny said, her voice holding a dangerous spark.  
  
"Not friends, acquaintances." Draco corrected, "And the potion is ready. Should we have breakfast?"  
  
"What else haven't you told me, Malfoy?" She asked, sounding worried.  
  
"Nothing important." He insisted happily, "I'm hungry."  
  
"That's not reassuring." She told him, but he was ignoring her, looking for the room service bell.  
  
"Where is it?" He mumbled to himself, "Hey, Weasley? What do you want for breakfast?"  
  
"Um, eggs on toast." She decided.  
  
"Is that all? Weasley, you're hanging out with one of the richest young men in England, why do you insist on doing everything on such a small scale." He asked.  
  
"The richest youth in England seems to have no idea how to act inconspicuous." Ginny snapped, "I think you did ask for this room, you know? You can't stand having anything but the best. With you throwing all this money around, we're going to get caught in no time."  
  
"So, just eggs on toast for you then?" He said sarcastically with a nod. Ginny gave a frustrated sigh and collapsed on the bed, while Draco made a sound of triumph as he found the bell and shook it gently. The house elf appeared beside him, and smiled happily.  
  
It asked.  
  
I'd like a full English breakfast with extra bacon, and my cousin would like eggs on toast. He bent down and lowered his voice to a whisper,  
  
"What did you say to him?" Ginny snapped, still lying on her bed.  
  
"Nothing my dear cousin." He called back, winking at the confused looking house elf.  
  
They ate their breakfast quickly, and Draco asked the house elf to bring them two small flasks. It did so without questions, and Draco poured the antidote into the flasks.  
  
"Don't drink it unless I say so." He instructed as he passed the flask to Ginny, who nodded.  
  
"What time is it?" She asked, packing the last of her things into her trunk. They would not be returning to the Hotel after they had visited Noginski, as it seemed foolish to stay in one place for too long.  
  
"Quarter to nine." He said, checking his watch, "Hurry up."  
  
"I am hurrying." She snapped. He shrugged, and turned away, looking into the mirror. He seemed to look at it for a long time, before cursing and hurrying over to push the last of her things into her trunk.  
  
"So stupid!" He muttered to himself, looking furious.  
  
"What is it? What's the matter?" Ginny asked, sounding panicked.  
  
"The mirrors Weasley, the damn mirrors!" He snapped, glancing at one of them, "The hotel staff can see us through the mirrors!"  
  
"You mean they can see everything that's been going on in here?" She asked.  
  
"Yes, that's damn well exactly what I mean." He had finished and was pulling the trunk closed, "It's a damn good thing I put silencing spells up, so it'll take them longer to figure out who we really are. We can't check out, we'll just have to say that we're spending the night at Poltrick, and we'll be back in the morning. That should buy us some time."  
  
"What could they have seen that would tell them who we are?" Ginny asked.  
  
"Well, I expect the potion making would look a bit suspicious." Sarcasm dripped from his voice, "Besides, these people can lip read, and we've been calling each other by our real names all night."  
  
"You're being paranoid." She snapped.  
  
"As I said before, better paranoid then dead." He pointed out. They left their room, and went down into the lounge, where there was a large group of young witches and wizards. The woman from the night before was talking to a handsome wizard who Ginny recognized, but she couldn't think from where. The woman turned around and saw them, and waved them over.  
  
"Promise not to be overcome with a fit of jealousy Weasley?" Draco mumbled. Ginny scowled at him, but then recognition hit her, and all she could see was the man in front of her.  
  
"You're Aidan Lynch." She gasped, and then felt immediately stupid.  
  
"Yeah, that's me." He said smiling charmingly. Ginny was vaguely aware of Draco saying something to the Russian woman, but that really didn't seem very important to her. She had fancied Aidan Lynch since she was thirteen and had seen him in the Quidditch World Cup. She had wanted to cry when Krum had used the Wronski Feint and Aidan had ended up crashing to the ground. "And what's your name?"  
  
"I'm G-Emily. Emily Bowcott." She said holding out her hand, "I saw you playing in the World Cup a few years ago, you-you were very good."  
  
"Didn't catch the snitch." He said, shaking his head, he didn't shake her hand, but instead kissed it, "You off to see Professor Noginski?"  
  
"Yeah, he's my uncle." Ginny explained, hating that she had to lie to this handsome young man, "Doubt he remembers me, I haven't seem his since I was little."  
  
"And how old are you now?" Aidan asked, and Ginny realised with a thrill that he was flirting with her. She knew that she was only fifteen, and that he wouldn't look at her twice if she were in her true form, even though she was prettier that way, but it was still wonderful.  
  
"Almost nineteen." She decided, and was very relieved that this body didn't blush.  
  
"Well, I think I'll be saving a seat for you next to me at the lecture." He said, smiling. He then glanced over at Draco, who was standing behind her, looking very annoyed that no one was paying attention to him, "Is this your brother?"  
  
"My cousin, Nathan." She said, introducing them. Draco glared at the Irish seeker, and simply looked at the hand that Aidan offered.  
  
"You two look a lot alike." Aidan said, looking uncomfortable.  
  
"Yes, but unlike my cousin, I have manners." Ginny said, glaring at Draco.  
  
Malfoy was about to speak, but was suddenly interrupted by a long stream of Russian. The young woman was calling out to all the people in the lounge.  
  
"What did she say?" Ginny asked Draco, who was looking very moody.  
  
"I'm not sure, maybe Lynch knows." Draco snapped, and Aidan looked alarmed by the boy's hostile words.  
  
"She said that The Port Key was about to leave." He said, glancing nervously at Ginny.  
  
"Excuse my cousin, he's unnecessarily protective." Ginny smiled, and dragged Draco over to the Port Key, "Now whose jealous?"  
  
"He's too old for you." Draco snapped, "Besides, we should try to keep to ourselves."  
  
"I'd love to, but I already said I'd sit next to Aidan, too bad." And with that she placed her hand on the Port Key, which was a statue of a castle, and Draco had no alternative but to follow suite.  
  
A moment later they were standing in the Entrance Hall of a castle.  
  
***  
  
Molly Weasley sat in her kitchen, reading the Daily Prophet. She glanced up at the clock to see if Arthur had arrived at work yet, but his hand was still at 'Travelling', along with the stump of Ginny's hand.  
  
After Ginny's death, her hand had remained fixed on travelling, which had upset Molly every time she had looked at the clock. After a few weeks of this Arthur had walked over to the clock, and had tried to remove the hand. It had not worked, and the best Arthur could manage was breaking it off near its start, making it almost invisible.  
  
Molly looked away, turning back to her newspaper. She didn't see Charlie's hand flicker from 'at work' to 'in mortal danger' and then back again. Nor did she see the tiny stump that had once been Ginny's hand move from 'travelling' to 'at school'.  
  
*** 


	8. Ginny's Kiss In Poltrick

Dedicated to my beta Dom and.  
  
Grr-Krissy-Grr: Updating as ordered  
  
Icanreadandcount: Couldn't you just tell that Aidan was gonna be gorgeous? And I'm quite liking that name (  
  
Akawsha: *feels like the most complimented person ever* wow! Thank you! The fact that you can't see through my plot may have something to do with the fact that I don't quite know what it is yet.  
  
***  
  
Ginny's Kiss In Poltrick  
  
***  
  
The Entrance Hall was beautiful, and Ginny had to stop herself from gasping. It looked more like a palace then a castle, and the walls looked like they were made from glass, or crystal. A middle-aged man was walking towards them, talking in very fast Russian, and smiling. Draco quickly strode up to him, and they talked quickly.  
  
Draco called, and the man looked at him startled. It was, of course, Professor Noginski. His hair was greying, and he was small and portly.  
  
He responded, looking confused.  
  
I'm sorry, of course you don't recognize me, we havn't seen each other since I was five. It's me, Nathaniel Bowcott. Draco said, smiling,   
  
Noginski's brow furrowed in confusion, then understanding dawned.  
  
He whispered I heard both families have lost children from my friend Albus Dumbledore.   
  
Draco said, trying to look uninterested. He glanced nervously at the crowd, who were looking at them with confusion.  
  
I Noginski said to the other visitors, And with that he hugged Draco and Ginny quickly. Ginny looked startled at Draco, but he nodded, telling her to play along.  
  
The Professor called, motioning for them to follow him. He led them to a large chamber, with a stage and many seats set out in front of it.  
  
"Malfoy!" Ginny whispered, "He's going to speak in Russian, I can't understand a word of Russian!"  
  
"Don't worry." Draco whispered back, "They'll have arranged for something."  
  
And sure enough, a young man was walking around with what looked vaguely like Muggle earphones. The sign on the box changed from language to language, and Ginny waited patiently for it to come to English.  
  
Transo-Phones! Do you have problems understanding foreign languages? With Transo-Phones, all you have to do is pop them in your ears, and everything is converted into a language you understand!  
  
Wow, that's convenient." Ginny mumbled, staring at the Transo-Phones. Several other people had picked up the boxes as well, and were putting on the strange devices. Ginny quickly followed suite.  
  
"Emily!" A lilting voice called. It took her a moment to realise that it was Aidan calling her.  
  
"Coming!" She called, and hurried over, a grumpy Draco following her.  
  
"Best seats in the room." Aidan told her, pulling out the seat so she could sit down, "For the prettiest girl in the room."  
  
"Didn't you hear Em?" Draco drawled, "He's reserving this seat for someone else."  
  
"Yeah, you." Ginny shot down.  
  
"I'm not a girl!" He scoffed, looking offended.  
  
"You're not pretty either." She snapped, sitting down and smiling at Aidan, "We don't get on very well."  
  
"It always happens with family who are so close in age." The Irish man assured her, "I'm always fighting with my brother. He's only a year older than me. You'd have thought that we'd grow out of it but."  
  
"As soon as we have everything sorted out and we're back in England, I don't intend on seeing my cousin very often." Ginny told him, "So I don't think it'll matter."  
  
"Ah come on, you like him deep down, don't you?" Aidan chided.  
  
"No." She said, and it was obvious that it was true.  
  
"What, not at all?" he looked shocked.  
  
"M-Nathaniel and I tolerate each other, because it would be hell travelling with each other if we didn't." Ginny explained, "But we're not close, we never have been. He's always been a bully."  
  
"Hey!" Draco exclaimed, with a fake expression of hurt, "It was always you and your stupid brothers that started it! You lot and Potter and Granger."  
  
"Potter?" Aidan asked, confused.  
  
"Yeah, Potter Bowcott, Nathaniel's brother." Ginny lied quickly, "Charles Granger's his best friend. Me and my two brother's have always gotten on better with Potter than with Nathaniel."  
  
"There are an awful lot of you." The Ireland Seeker said, looking confused, and slightly worried. It appeared to him as though he had just landed in the middle of a family feud.  
  
"Our father's are close, so we see each other a lot, that's all." Draco said, gritting his teeth, he looked furious that Ginny had named Potter as his brother.  
  
But before the conversation could continue, Noginski walked onto the stage, and up to a stand.  
  
"Hello my fellow travellers, and welcome to Poltrick Academy for Magic!" He boomed. Ginny had to stifle a giggle. His lips were moving, and words were coming out, but there seemed to be no correlation between to two things. Of course, Ginny was hearing in English, while in fact he was talking in Russian, "How good it is to see you here. My colleagues have assured me that you are here to hear e speak, although I have no idea why. You can't possibly want to hear about my slaying of the Manticore, can you? And I'm sure my journeys into the dangerous Un-Plotable Forest will bore you to sleep!"  
  
The crowd laughed, and he continued seriously, giving detailed accounts of all his expeditions. He talked about his findings, and the dangers he encountered while searching for them. After a while Ginny realised that her mouth was hanging open, and she closed it quickly, her eyes shinning with eagerness.  
  
In her first year of Hogwarts she had had the famous Gilderoy Lockhart as her Defence Against Dark Arts Professor, and had spent many an hour sitting listening to her friends chatter about him. She even received the same torture from her Mother, and even level headed Hermione. But she had never seen what was so interesting about his accomplishments. Of course, it had turned out that they weren't his accomplishments, but even when she had thought they were, they all seemed slightly dead. But the way Noginski talked, and the things he had done.she was captivated.  
  
"I'm terribly sorry," Noginski said, after what seemed like a few minutes, "I seem to have been talking to you for a two hours! I hope that I didn't bore you too much. Shall we make our way back to the Entrance Hall? You are all welcome to stay for lunch in the Main Hall, and I hope none of my students will show me up."  
  
***  
  
"This is useless!" Hermione snapped, shutting her book, "All we have to go on is the word 'vessel', do you know how many references there are to that word in the Hogwarts Library? It's ridiculous!"  
  
"We could cross reference it with the phrase 'missing slimy git'." Ron suggested, but Hermione ignored him.  
  
"If we knew what it was a vessel for, that would be a start." She said to Harry.  
  
"Well, my guess is something evil." He replied, and Ron hid a chuckle.  
  
"You two are not taking this seriously." Hermione growled, picking up 'so you need to trap a ghost', "Maybe they've killed Malfoy and they want to trap his soul to drain its power."  
  
"Or maybe he had a fight with his dad and did a runner." Ron suggested, "The point is, we need to know more, because what we have isn't enough."  
  
"I could go and talk to Blaise, see if she knows anything more." Harry said, looking at his feet.  
  
"Oh yes, I can see how that will be productive." Hermione snapped sarcastically, "And while your snogging your new girlfriend Malfoy is off somewhere being sacrificed to a Goat God!"  
  
"Why a goat god?" Ron asked.  
  
"And why are you so concerned about him?" Harry added, "Even if we saved his life or something, he's just sneer at us, and asked us what took us so long."  
  
"I hate Malfoy just as much as you do, but I don't think he's evil, not like his father." She said, packing some of her books into her bag, "And I can't help but feel that the Ministry isn't going to be much help. We may be Malfoy's last hope, and if we are, I refuse to just sit around and listen to your jokes."  
  
And with that she stood up and stormed out of the Library.  
  
***  
  
They all walked in a group, and Ginny found herself talking to Aidan Lynch again, as Draco walked ahead with Noginski.  
  
"Why are you visiting your uncle again?" Aidan asked.  
  
"My uncle, Nathaniel's father, is ill, we thought Uncle Ivan would like to see him again, in case he doesn't get better." Ginny explained. She had always been a good liar, something she shared with Fred and George, but lying to Aidan seemed wrong somehow, and she felt guilty, "But I'd rather not talk about that. What's your family like?"  
  
They talked until they reached the hall, and sat down next to each other, opposite Draco and Noginski.  
  
"Of course me Mam wish's I was doing a nice safe job, like owning a shop, but she knows I love Quidditch." Aidan told her, "And all my family are proud, which is more than I could ever hope for. You play much Quidditch?"  
  
"Yeah, I suppose. I always stole my older brother's brooms when they weren't around when I was little, so I got quite a bit of practice." She explained, "I played as a Seeker for a year in my house team when I was at school. After that thing's got a bit hectic, and I didn't have a chance to play again. I played against Nathaniel for the finals, and we won, but that was mainly due to my brother's excellent Keeper Skills."  
  
"Emily, did you catch the Snitch?" Aidan asked, and she could feel a compliment coming on. She nodded slowly, and he smiled dazzlingly, "Then you won the game! What else could you have done?"  
  
"Ah, you're right, I guess." Ginny laughed. As she talked she was adopting Aidan's almost lazy way of speaking, and it felt nice to feel that comfortable with someone again.  
  
"Is everyone ready?" Noginski called, "Good, then my students will begin. They like to put on a bit of a show for the visitors."  
  
The hall was filling with students, taking their seats in the surrounding tables. Three older students walked towards them, and stood at the head of the table. The two boys looked similar, both being tall and having dark blond hair. They both also had slightly square jaws. The girl who stood with them was small, with long dark hair, and wide staring eyes. They pulled out their wands, which were much longer and thicker than the ones you saw in Hogwarts, and pointed them at the empty table.  
  
"Doré Assietteta!" One of the boys shouted, and the table was suddenly filled with gold platters, and two golden fountains, that produced nothing. The next boy stepped forward and shouted out his incarnation.  
  
"Nourriturita Apparaîtrium!" Now the platters were filled with food that put the Hogwarts feasts to shame. Ginny had to stop herself starting straight away, remembering that there was still the girl to go.  
  
"Argenta Commencius!" The girl shouted, and the gold fountains came to life, shooting silver liquid high into the air. Noginski laughed and took his cup, dipping it into the fountain bowl. The other guests did the same, and he stood up, obviously to make a toast of some sort.  
  
"To the delight of discovery, and the discovery of friends." He called, and they all took a sip of the drink.  
  
It was the most amazing thing Ginny had ever tasted. It felt like she was swallowing warm silk, and tasted rich and sweet. Draco leant over, and she moved towards him, to hear what he had to say.  
  
"It's Unicorn Milk." He explained, "Russia is the only place where you can get it, because the Russian Unicorns are much more easily tamed than any other."  
  
"It's.amazing" She whispered, "I fell so happy."  
  
"It's a bit like alcohol, in a good way. It makes you fell happy and friendly, and makes everyone around you seem so much nicer." Draco said, taking another sip.  
  
"I'll have to drink a lot to find you nice." She laughed, but she smiled as she said it, and he smiled back. Not a smirk, or a sarcastic smile, a genuine one.  
  
They ate, and talked, and laughed. After both Draco and Aidan had drunk quite a bit of Unicorn Milk, they started to discuss Ireland's prospects for the next World Cup.  
  
"We're not looking so good this year." Aidan admitted. As the Quidditch World cup had so many different teams, the world cup was held only once every two years.  
  
"You'll do alright." Draco assured him, "The only reason you didn't beat Krum last time was because you didn't expect him to be so good. You'll be prepared this year. Who are you up against next?"  
  
"Australia, but there's a rumour they may pull out because of You-Know- Who." He replied, "Emily mentioned you were a Seeker, any chance I might end up against you one day?"  
  
"Not likely. The only reason I wanted to be a Seeker was because Potter was the Seeker for the other team, and I wanted to beat him." The younger boy explained, "I like the game, but I never loved it, and I think that's why I never beat him."  
  
"Lots of fights between you and your brother?" Aidan asked.  
  
"Lets put it this way, the only person who could get me angrier then Emily or her brother, is Potter." Draco scowled, and poured himself some more Unicorn Milk. He had never really got on with people before, and he was enjoying the new experience.  
  
"With me and my brothers, everything is about love for your family." Ginny explained, "But with M-Nathaniel, it's all about family pride."  
  
"Ah, I get it." Aidan nodded, "Just one question, why do you always start Nathaniel's name with an M?"  
  
"I-" Ginny began, not sure what to say. Draco came to her rescue though.  
  
"It was my old nick-name." He said, "Maggot. When we started the journey, I made her promise not to call me it any more, and she agreed, but sometimes she forgets."  
  
"Maggot, that's not very nice." Said the Irish boy.  
  
"You should hear what he calls me." She laughed, and to her surprise Draco looked embarrassed.  
  
"Look, it might be the milk.in fact, I know it's the milk, but I'm really sorry for what I've always put you through." He told her, taking her hand. He then turned to Aidan, "And I'm sorry for being a prick when I first met you. I may not be nice to Emily, but I am protective, and I didn't know if I could trust you."  
  
"You're right." Said Ginny, "It is the milk!"  
  
They all laughed, and Ginny took both their hands, and squeezed them. Suddenly, Noginski leaned over and smiled at them.  
  
"You will, of course, be staying here tonight, won't you?" He asked, "We have a lot to talk about."  
  
"Of course we will." Ginny said. She looked over at Aidan, and felt her heart tug, "Can-?"  
  
"Of course he can!" The Professor said, but the Seeker shook his head.  
  
"I have to be going tonight." Aidan said, smiling sadly, "Otherwise I'd love to stay."  
  
"Oh." Ginny's face fell, but she tried to pull it back into a smile. The Unicorn Milk helped.  
  
A whistle blew overhead, and all the guests looked around in surprise. Noginski stood, and all eyes turned to him.  
  
"That, my friends, is the school telling us that your Port Key is ready and waiting. Shall we make our way?" Everyone stood, and they all followed him to the Entrance Hall, where the statue of the castle stood, waiting.  
  
"Aidan, can you do something for us?" Draco asked.  
  
"All you have to do is ask." The other boy replied.  
  
"When you get back to the Hotel, can you tell the woman that we've moved on, and have gone to Spain?" Draco lowered his voice, "And keep to that story, no matter who asks, or how many people ask."  
  
"I'll do that." Aidan assured him, before turning to Ginny, "So, can I write to you?"  
  
"Uh, owls'll have a bit of a hard time finding us." Draco interrupted, "It's not really possible."  
  
"Send all your owls to your local Letter Hub." She said after some thought, "Then, if I go to any Letter Hub in the world, I'll be able to get them, isn't that right?"  
  
"Yeah!" Aidan said, smiling, "I wouldn't have thought of that. You'll write back?"  
  
"I promise." Ginny said, smiling at him. He looked at her for a moment, before quickly kissing her on the lips before hurrying over to the castle, which everyone was gathered around.  
  
Draco had started to like Aidan; he had already respected him for being such a good Quidditch player. Near the end, Draco had felt that Aidan was, really, a good guy. Of course, now he understood that Aidan was nothing more than a womanising glorified bastard.  
  
I should be taking notes, Draco thought to himself, but he couldn't shake the feeling that his real dislike of Aidan was centred on Ginny's like for him.  
  
***  
  
Review please! This chapter was a bit choppy, because I hadn't posted for so long, and felt that I had to write quickly. I'm gonna be very busy lately, GCSE revision and all that, but I'll try to keep writing. I have a lot of other story ideas, and I want to get started, but I'll try not to rush through this. 


	9. The Cure

Disclaimer: I didn't do one last chapter, so now I fear that I shall be sued, and this story will be pulled of the website! *sob, sob* so, this doesn't belong to me, don't be mislead by my last chapter.  
  
Dedicated, as always, to Dom, my beta.  
  
AN: Thank you's at the end of the chapter this time, so you don't feel obligated to read them.  
  
***  
  
The Cure  
  
***  
  
It was late in the evening when Professor Noginski had time to speak to them. A student called them from the room they had been instructed to wait in and led them into an office that was filled with strange objects that looked like they had originated from all over the world.  
  
"Thank you." Noginski said to the student, who bowed his head and left. Ginny was still wearing the Transo-phones, and it had occurred to her that the professor had understood every word that she had said previously, and therefore obviously understood English, "Well now, it seems that we have a lot to discus. I assume that you are not really my long lost niece and nephew, and that your names are not really Nathaniel and Emily Bowcott."  
  
"No, I'm Draco Malfoy, and this is Virginia Weasley." Draco explained, casually taking a seat. Ginny nervously sat next to him, wishing that the Unicorn Milk effects weren't wearing off so soon.  
  
"I assumed as much." Noginski nodded, "Although, this is most peculiar, a Malfoy and a Weasley travelling together. And from what I have seen you are not exactly at each others throats either."  
  
"It's amazing what saving someone's life can do for your relationship." Draco smirked, "But, in all seriousness, we really need your help."  
  
"Yes, I imagine you do. You do know that I don't get on with your father very well, don't you?" The man asked. Draco nodded, and he continued, "Yes, I thought you might. It has a lot to do with why you're here, doesn't it? Miss Weasley, will you please come here?"  
  
Ginny stood up nervously and walked over, and sat down in the seat her offered her.  
  
"First of all, I think you should both take off those disguises." Noginski told them, and Draco grinned as he pulled out one of the flasks that contained their antidote. Ginny reached into her own robes and took out her own flask. Draco drank his first, and Ginny followed suite.  
  
The transformation back was not half as painful as the transformation into her disguise, but it was still uncomfortable. She also found herself wearing robes that were several times too big for her. Draco was laughing at his reflection, and hoisted up his robes so that he wouldn't trip over them.  
  
"I don't think I've ever seen two people who are so like their parents." Noginski told them, "Master Malfoy, you are just like your father, before he grew into his looks."  
  
"What, my father was ugly?" Draco exclaimed, looking delighted.  
  
"Oh no, never ugly, and you must not think that you are either. No, you simply have not grown into your looks, but you will, and when you do, you'll have to beat them off with a stick." Noginski told him.  
  
"I already have to beat them off with a stick." The teenage boy said smugly.  
  
"Yeah, but 'they' are rabid dogs." Ginny explained, and Noginski laughed.  
  
"And you, my dear, look almost exactly what I imagine Molly Weasley looked like when she was fifteen!" he said, still laughing, "I knew your parents briefly years ago, when your older brother, William, was just born. They were filled with a new parents pride, and where obviously eager to have more."  
  
"You saw Bill when he was a baby? How cute!" Ginny exclaimed, feeling far more comfortable. If her parents trusted this man enough to show off about their first child, then he was obviously trustworthy.  
  
"Ok, can we move on from the family catch up?" Draco asked, "We have a really big problem."  
  
"Yes, you have." Noginski agreed, looking sombre, "Miss Weasley, I do believe that you have an unwanted guest."  
  
"How did you know?" Ginny asked.  
  
"Because it is partly my fault that you have him." He said sadly, "I fear that I owe you a great explanation. Draco, did your father ever tell you the nature of our disagreement?"  
  
"Not really, he raved a lot about how you were a deluded fool, and that you were too weak to seize power when it was offered to you." Draco told him.  
  
"A fool was I? Too weak? No, I was too moral. I would not take advantage of another's misfortune, and somehow that makes me deluded? I think not!" Noginski's normally kind face was cloudy with anger, "I'm sorry, I'm ranting. There is much I have to explain to you, much I have to confess."  
  
"What did you mean, that it was your fault?" Ginny asked.  
  
"I will have to explain from the beginning." He told them and begun.  
  
***  
  
"How dare you?" Snarled Lucius, looking furious.  
  
"All we're asking is what school, exactly, is Draco attending?" Remus Lupin asked. Since the revelation that Voldemort was back, the ministry had been very compliant with Dumbledore's wishes, and had happily hired Remus as an Auror when the Headmaster had suggested it. Remus was particularly enjoying this case.  
  
"And all I'm saying is that it is none of your damn business!" Snapped the older man, practically baring his teeth.  
  
"Actually it is, as you apparently transferred Draco without following the proper procedures and alerting the Ministry." Remus suppressed a smile when he saw Lucius's expression change from anger to worry, "The boy could be dead for all we know, and we can't have that, can we?"  
  
"He's attending.Durmstrang, yes, Durmstrang." He said hurriedly.  
  
"Well, that's funny, because that was one of the first places we looked, and he's not there." Remus growled (and he's a good growler), "Now tell me where your son is."  
  
"The idiot ran away." Lucius said after a moment. He had had the feeling that several parts of his anatomy had been under threat of being removed, "I had wanted to sort it out without involving the Ministry, as I knew you lot would over react."  
  
"You're telling me that you have no idea where Draco is, and you don't see that as a reason to panic?" Remus asked, looking generally astounded.  
  
"He's probably just hiding out on the grounds somewhere, trying to annoy me."  
  
"Or he could be out in the Muggle world being killed by a group of Muggle thugs!" The werewolf exclaimed.  
  
"I would know if my son were dead." Lucius told him.  
  
"Well I'm sorry, but that isn't good enough for the Ministry." Remus replied, "We're going to have to ask you to come with us and help with our enquiries. And we're going to have to declare Draco officially missing."  
  
***  
  
"It was just over a year ago," Noginski told them, "rumours of the Dark Lord's return were flying around, but I gave them no heed, as we were being constantly assured that The Boy Who Lived, the great Harry Potter, was no more than an attention seeking child. Two men that I had worked with previously came to me, asking me to help them with a research project that they had picked up. The two men where Damien Zabini, and, of course, Lucius Malfoy. We were looking into a theory that people who had been temporarily possessed in the past held an imprint of their possessor, and the possessor's soul could be channelled through that imprint."  
  
Draco, who had gone into a sulk when Harry had been referred to as 'the great' now sat up, looking interested.  
  
"You thought you were just looking into a theory." Ginny stated, trying not to be angry, trying not to hate him.  
  
"That it exactly what I thought, for a while at least. I confess that I was fascinated with the idea. I had done a lot of work on possession previously, and I thought that if I could publish a paper on this I would finally be regarded as the leading expert on the subject, something that I felt I deserved for some time now." He sighed, "Such is the price for vanity. I did not notice that Lucius and Damien gave me little help on the subject, and took copies of all my work, constantly analysing them. I did not wonder where my funding was coming from. All I cared about was theorising a way to channel the soul of the possessor through the imprint inside the victim. I found it in the end, and I was overjoyed."  
  
"How?" Ginny asked, clenching her fists together angrily.  
  
"First a spell must be done, quite a simple one. It anchors the two souls together. If the possessor is alive, it can be quite painful, and disconcerting, but if he or she is not, then the person who has had the spell cast on them may not even know, until the last stage of the process is carried out." Noginski explained, "The last stage is the most brutal. The victim must be placed in complete isolation, until they go nearly insane. When they retreat inside their minds, they activate the soul, and then there is a battle of wills. The victim will at first have the upper hand, the body recognises the soul, and will also fight against the intruder. But eventually the victims mind will become weaker from the isolation, and the intruder will be able to take over."  
  
"But he wasn't able to take over!" Ginny said, feeling triumphant, "He wasn't able to, and he said he can't unless I let him."  
  
"Am I correct in assuming that Draco here took you out of your isolation?" Noginski asked, and Ginny nodded, "He interrupted the process, and left your guest in a sticky situation. The only way he can take over your body is with your permission, which you are not likely to give. But I digress. When I found this out I went straight to Malfoy and Zabini, foolishly proud of my accomplishments. But something caused me to stop outside their office, a feeling that I could not quite describe. So instead of entering I waited, and stood outside, listening in on their conversation. I heard them discuss the Dark Lord, and you, Miss Weasley. They said that with Tom Riddle's help, the Dark Lord would be invincible, and all they had to do was wait while I did their dirty work. Straight away I barged in and confronted them. They tried to bribe me, telling me that they would give me unlimited power if I helped, but I refused, and threw my work on the fire, right in front of them. They would have killed me if not for the fact that we were in Poltrick, and Poltrick would never allow one of her inhabitants to be harmed. I had hoped that that would be the end of it. But it looks as though they were able to complete the work from the notes I had given them previously, and for that I am most grievously sorry."  
  
"How can I get him out?" Ginny asked. Her anger for this man was ebbing. She knew that it was not really his fault, and that he had tried to save her from this fate, sacrificing his greatest accomplishment in the process.  
  
"I do not know for sure, but I may have an idea." He told her, "It will not be pleasant, but it would be worth it if it worked, wouldn't it?"  
  
"Anything to get him out." She said.  
  
"Then please come with me."  
  
***  
  
By the time McGonagall arrived Dumbledore, Snape and Hagrid were already in the Headmaster's office, looking apprehensive. Dumbledore's normally serene face was creased with worry, Snape was pacing the office, looking angry, and Hagrid was fidgeting with his hat.  
  
"Albus, I've just received a letter from Lupin." She told him, "They've taken Lucius Malfoy in for questioning, and they've declared Draco officially missing."  
  
"Finally!" Snape spat, looking maliciously pleased.  
  
"What did Lucius say happened?" Dumbledore asked.  
  
"He said that he had had a fight with the Draco, and he ran away." McGonagall explained, "According to Lupin, Fudge has taken the case to heart. He seems determined to prove to the public that he doesn't care about how pure anyone's blood is. He's treating this as a possible murder enquiry."  
  
"Draco is not dead." Dumbledore told them, "As frustrating as it may be, the fact that we cannot track him is a good sign. It means that he is still alive. Hagrid, I will need your help."  
  
"I'm not sure why I'm 'ere, sir." The giant man mumbled, "You lot 'ave all got magic on yer side, how could I help?"  
  
"Come now Hagrid, you know that you are possibly better connected than anyone of us here." Dumbledore said, and Hagrid swelled with pride, "It doesn't matter how many people we know, it means nothing if they won't talk to us. That is a problem you never seem to have. Talk to people, find out if anyone had heard of two strange travelling youths."  
  
"Two, Albus?" McGonagall asked, looking puzzled.  
  
"Yes, two Minerva." The headmaster assured her, "From what little I have found out, I know that he is not travelling alone."  
  
"Who would 'e be travelling with?" Hagrid asked.  
  
"No one else has been declared missing." Snape reminded him.  
  
"I have a suspicion, but it would be foolish to voice it now." Dumbledore told them, "But if it is who I think it is. Well, Lucius will have a lot to explain."  
  
***  
  
Ron and Hermione sat in the common room, his arm over her shoulder. She laid her head on his chest and sighed.  
  
"Where is he?" She asked.  
  
"Dunno love, he said he'd be back soon, that he wanted to have a quick chat with Blaise Zabini." Ron explained, "Hey, why are you thinking about Harry when we're finally alone together?"  
  
"I'm just worried about him, that's all." Hermione said, "He is my friend you know. He seems a bit over keen on Blaise. I think you should remind him that she is a Slytherin. I'm not saying that she isn't nice, but he should remember that she's only using us to get Malfoy back."  
  
"Yeah, but she's still really nice." He said sarcastically, "Don't worry, I'll remind the idiot. He's a sucker for a pretty face."  
  
"You're not of course." The brown haired girl pointed out.  
  
"Of course I'm not a sucker for a pretty face! I prefer girls with a bit of substance, clever girls. Like you." He told her, trying to kiss her, but she pulled back, glaring at him.  
  
"Think very carefully about what you just said, and then try rephrasing it." She said coldly.  
  
"What?" He said. He scrunched up his face and mouthed what he had just said, before opening them in surprise, looking embarrassed, "Not that you're not pretty! You're really pretty, but have substance too. You're a pretty girl with substance, honest!"  
  
"That's what I thought." She said sharply.  
  
"Yeah, that's what I meant." He mumbled before looking around, "I wonder where Harry is?"  
  
"Why are you thinking about Harry, when we're finally alone together?" Hermione said, a sly smile on her face.  
  
"This isn't a fair relationship." He told her before kissing her.  
  
***  
  
"This isn't a fair relationship." Harry said, kissing the dark haired girl.  
  
"This isn't a relationship." Blaise reminded him.  
  
"I don't see why we should hide this from our friends." He complained, pulling away. They were in the room of requirements, which currently looked like something from an Arabian Nights movie.  
  
"That's because you're a Gryffindor, and can't understand that I would be killed in my house for fraternising with the enemy." She told him, trying to pull him into another kiss, but he resisted.  
  
"We're on the same side here!" He exclaimed, "Houses won't mean anything in the war, and you can't expect me to believe that everyone in Slytherin is going to be a Death Eater. Besides, wouldn't everyone be happy that I'm helping you find Malfoy?"  
  
"Most of our parents are Death Eaters, I know my father is." She said bitterly, "Yes, I know that I'm not going to be one, but lots of us are. They wouldn't mind the idea of me using you for my own purposes, but using you and dating you are two different things."  
  
"So you're just going to pretend that you're using me then?" Harry asked.  
  
"Harry, I'm not pretending." She said, kissing him gently before he could respond.  
  
"Hey, that's not fair!" He said, looking hurt, "I'm helping you find Malfoy, and you're just."  
  
"Having fun." Blaise said, "Look, I like you Harry, you're sweet, but you're not exactly the sort of person I'm going to end up with. I'll probably end up being Mrs Blaise Nott, or Mrs Blaise Malfoy."  
  
"Malfoy!" Harry exclaimed, looking shocked, "Is this what it's all about, saving him so that you can marry him?"  
  
"Well, yeah, kinda." She said, "We're sixteen, we'll be leaving Hogwarts in just over a year, I need to know that I'll have a suitable life waiting for me. If I started going out with you, no one else in Slytherin would want to go out with me, so then what will I do? Marry you? The boy I end up going out with now is the boy I'm going to marry."  
  
"Blaise, listen to me, we're sixteen! We can get married anytime in our life, we don't need to settle down now." Harry ran his hands through his hair, "Besides, you're really clever, why would you have to marry someone rich, why not just get a job of your own?"  
  
"My mother doesn't work, she gets her money from my father." Blaise told him, looking confused.  
  
"Yes, your father, the Death Eater who might have killed the boy you want to marry." Harry scowled, "Are you going to marry someone like him if you can't get Malfoy. Wait, Malfoy is like him!"  
  
"Look, can we just go back to kissing, I enjoy that much more than the talking." She said, looking annoyed.  
  
"Ok, this is bizarre, I must be the only boy in Hogwarts who want to talk when all their girlfriend wants to do is make out." He said, sliding his arm around her waist.  
  
"I'm not your girlfriend." She muttered.  
  
"Yet."  
  
***  
  
Aidan arrived back at the hotel and found it full of men in dark robes. They were all talking to the Hotel assistant, who was looking around furiously.  
  
She said, looking angry.  
  
The man who she was talking to scowled.  
  
She shouted, pointing towards Aidan   
  
At once Wizards, who were jabbering questions at him, surrounded him. He was fairly adept at Russian, but was unable to understand a word that was being said to him. Finally, the Wizard who seemed to be in charge managed to silence them, and turned to Aidan.  
  
He asked. Aidan was suddenly reminded of Nathaniel's strange request, and that Emily had said that she couldn't be tracked. They were obviously running away from these people.  
  
He said vaguely. The Wizard in charge turned to the Hotel Assistant who pulled out a register and showed him two names.  
  
The Wizard told him.  
  
He said, feeling nervous, He hoped that sounded convincing.  
  
He asked.  
  
Aidan explained,   
  
The Wizard told him, waving his hand as if the question was unimportant. That was a mistake though, because as he waved his hand, his sleeve rose up his arm, showing the bottom of what looked like a black scull. Fear instantly rose in his stomach, and he knew he had done the right thing, lying to these men. They were Death Eaters, and if helping Emily and Nathaniel get away hindered them at all then it was the right thing to do.  
  
I He said, trying not to stutter,   
  
And with that he excused himself and hurried to his room. He considered writing to Emily right away, but decided not to, as he was probably being watched. Instead he tried to act normal, packing his bag, checking his reflection, mucking around with his toy snitch. He even pretended to have lost something, as that is what people normally did in hotels. Finally, when he was finished, he picked up his bag, walked to the front desk and checked out.  
  
I The Hotel assistant said, smiling at him. Aidan had to stop himself from looking at her forearm. She was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, and he could easily see she did not have the Dark Mark, but still his eyes were drawn to the spot where it would have been.  
  
I He assured her, before leaving through the fireplace. Once home he marched into his kitchen and grabbed his quill and parchment, already writing before he had even sat down.  
  
Dear Emily, It's a good thing Nathaniel asked me for that favour, for as soon as I had returned to the Hotel, I found it full of Death Eaters, all looking for you.  
  
***  
  
Noginski led Ginny and Draco to a tower that looked over a large forest, and made Ginny sit on the ledge.  
  
"That looks really dangerous." Draco said, looking worried.  
  
"Don't fret, as I said before Poltrick never lets its inhabitants come to harm. If she were to fall she'd probably find that there was a ledge below her, which she could use to simply climb back to here." Noginski assured him, "Which is why I have no worries asking you stand up Miss Weasley."  
  
"Stand up! I'm almost having a heart attack just sitting here!" She exclaimed, looking panicked.  
  
"Please believe me that you'll come to no harm here." He assured her, "And Master Malfoy can hold you still, so you will not fall."  
  
"You think I'd feel safer with my life in Malfoy's hands?" Ginny asked, but allowed Draco to take her hand as she scrabbled to her feet, looking terrified.  
  
"Now, I'm going to cast a spell on you, it will send you into a light coma of sorts, but I can remove it any time I need to. Is that ok?" He asked.  
  
"Will it help me get rid of Tom?" She asked in return.  
  
"I think it will." He replied.  
  
"Then do it, and if I fall to my untimely death then I trust Malfoy to kill you." She said, flashing a smile towards the boy who was holding her upright.  
  
"Might be fun." He agreed, smiling back.  
  
"If you two are done? Good, I'll continue. Once you're in the coma, you should be able to communicate with Riddle." Noginski pulled out his wand, "Once you find yourself with him, try to visualize a weapon of some sort, or your wand, and then you have to kill him."  
  
"Kill." Suddenly Ginny looked doubtful.  
  
"Don't worry about it Weasley, it's not like he's really alive." Draco reminded her.  
  
"I suppose." But she still looked worried.  
  
"I cannot think of any other way." Noginski told her, "I really think this will work, and then you'll be free of him."  
  
"Do it." Ginny decided.  
  
"Vivant faible!" The professor shouted, and Ginny's body went limp.  
  
At once the walls of the castle shot up, encasing her in what looked like a stone cocoon.  
  
"Why does she have to be up there?" Draco asked.  
  
"As I said before, Poltrick will never allow harm to come to those who dwell inside it." Noginski explained, looking at the girl in front of him, "But there are a lot of people within this castle, and it doesn't always see all the danger's unless it is concentrating. I had to put Miss Weasley in danger, so Poltrick would turn its watchful gaze to her."  
  
"How long will this take?" But the professor just shook his head, and so he turned, and watched as Ginny gently swayed in the wind. Neither of them said a word, not even when tears started streaming down her face.  
  
***  
  
"What are you doing here?" Came a cold voice.  
  
"Um, I think I've come to vanquish you, or something." Ginny explained, "You havn't called me back for a while."  
  
"I was contemplating existence inside your mind." Tom told her, "I could look at your memories, but that's about it, and they're not very interesting. Now what's this about vanquishing me?"  
  
"I visited a man, and he said the best way to get rid of you would be to kill you." She looked down at her hand, and concentrated. The air around it shimmered, and a heavy axe appeared, "Ok, not really what I meant by weapon."  
  
"An axe. Would you even know how to use it?" The dark haired boy's smile was infuriating; "I suppose your strategy would just be to hit me with it as many times as possible."  
  
"I didn't intend for an axe." Ginny told him, "I was shooting for something a little more subtle."  
  
"An assassins blade perhaps?"  
  
"No." She concentrated on her hand once more, and this time, when the air around it shimmered, the axe had been replaced by her wand, "How's this?"  
  
"And can you perform any of the unforgivable curses?" Tom asked her.  
  
"I can try." Ginny raised her wand, and pointed it at Tom. The words formed in her mouth, but the way he just stood there, not moving, it scared her, "I can't kill you."  
  
"I could have told you that Virginia. You're not a killer, you're a little girl." He told her, "And even if you could say the words, you don't have enough power or determination."  
  
"This is my mind Tom, isn't everything influenced by my thought?" Ginny asked, "Shouldn't I just be able to will you dead?"  
  
"But you won't." He told her, "We might as well accept our fates. I am doomed to spend the rest of your life trapped in your mind, never aging, never changing. And you'll have me in your mind forever, calling you into your mind at the most inappropriate of times, until they finally lock you up in St Mungo's."  
  
"The way you talk, you think I'd be doing you a favour by killing you." She said, still holding the wand to his chest.  
  
"No, there is nothing worst then death. But this is certainly close." He regarded her with his dark eyes, "Put down the wand Virginia, it is silly of you to even contemplate killing me."  
  
Ginny felt a sigh leave her lips, and knew that she was defeated. Closing her eyes, she dropped the wand to the floor, and felt tears leave her eyes, streaming down her cheeks. She was doomed, this was the only way to be rid of him, and she was too weak to see it through.  
  
"And it was even sillier of you to close your eyes." Came his whisper, much closer than she had expected. Her eyes snapped open, and found that he was standing right in front of her, her own wand clutched in his fist. Unable to move, she held his stare, fear filling her mind.  
  
"Avada-" He began, but suddenly the earth lurched, and Ginny felt a cold wind rushing around her. It seemed to be blowing her surrounding's away, blowing Tom away. She felt something cold and smooth around her legs and stomach.  
  
***  
  
"What?" It was rock, encasing her, stopping her from falling. Wind was rushing through her hair, and her cheeks were wet with tears. Draco and Noginski stood below her, looking up, hope and fear showing on their faces. The rock was receding, and she stumbled off the ledge.  
  
"Did it work?" Draco asked, after several tense moments.  
  
"No." She replied, not looking at him.  
  
"Why not?" He demanded, looking and Noginski angrily.  
  
"It should have, there was no reason why it wouldn't." The professor said quickly, looking confused.  
  
"I have no doubt that it would have worked perfectly if I had attempted to kill him." Ginny told them, walking inside the castle, her head bowed low. She was looking at her hair, which now looked strange, as she had gotten used to the black, "But I didn't."  
  
"Why not?" Draco shouted angrily at her retreating back, but she did not reply, or turn around, or even acknowledge that she had heard him.  
  
***  
  
Icanreadandcount- More hot Aidan, for your viewing pleasure.  
  
J wish- I can't speak Russian, and dictionaries scare me  
  
ShesBLAZING- Thank you, I am most flattered  
  
TarynMalfoy88- Again, I'm really not sure where it is going!  
  
Ohepelss Oramtnci- Thanks 


	10. One Wand And A Broken Amulet

Disclaimer: Not mine  
  
A.N.: Please don't kill me for not making Draco gorgeous. That comes later, promise!  
  
A.N.2: When looking through my chapters on FF.net I noticed that some bits of text were missing. If anything confuses you e-mail me on Im_Amazed@Hotmail.com, and if it's because of missing text I'll e-mail you the chapter. No one's complained, but I was still upset when I found out.  
  
***  
  
Draco paced up and down outside the room Ginny had locked herself in, occasionally glaring at Noginski.  
  
"She's been in there for an hour, we should go see her." The boy said, making for the door.  
  
"I would not suggest it." The professor said quickly "Someone terrible must have happened, and we should give her some time."  
  
"Yeah, and I want to know what happened!" He shouted, and realised that Ginny could probably hear him. Sure enough, a moment later the door opened slightly, and Ginny peered outside, her eyes swollen.  
  
"Then I guess you better come inside." She said, opening the door even wider.  
  
"You didn't kill him." Draco said, walking inside. The room turned out to be a classroom, and he sat on one of the desk.  
  
"Obviously." Ginny replied, sitting near him.  
  
"Why not?" He asked.  
  
"Because I love him, sort of." She said, looking away.  
  
"You what?" Draco exclaimed, looking horrified. Noginski looked surprised, but said nothing.  
  
"I love him, it's really not that surprising." Ginny told him, "I've loved him since I first met him, when I wrote in that stupid diary. I thought maybe that I'd got over him, but I haven't. So when I pointed my wand at him, I couldn't do it."  
  
"That's quite understandable my dear, no one could expect you to kill someone you love." Noginski said, patting her shoulder, "I just wish I could think of another way."  
  
"You think I'm weak, don't you?" She asked Draco, who was still looking horrified. He shook his head.  
  
"I don't know. I've never loved anyone, so I don't know what it does to you." He explained.  
  
"Not anyone, not even your family?" Ginny asked.  
  
"Nope." He told her, and her face filled with pity, "Oh, don't look at me like that. It's really not that big a deal. My father is psychotic, and my mother is an airhead."  
  
"Narcissa Malfoy, an airhead!" Noginski exclaimed, "Either your mother has changed a lot, or you don't know her very well. Narcissa was always sharp witted and passionate. Airhead is an unthinkable term for her."  
  
"I think we're straying from the issue here." Draco said, indication to Ginny, "we're going to have to work out what to do next."  
  
"Yes, I suppose you are." Noginski nodded, "Did you have any other plan other than coming to me?"  
  
"Yeah, I thought that maybe we could go to France, to see the Centaurs of Greenpine Valley. They know a lot of stuff that we don't." Draco said, "But apart from that I'm stuck."  
  
"I have a friend who is in possession of a Genie." The professor told him, "I'll write to him and ask if he minds allowing you a wish. I'd visit the Centaurs first, my friend can be a bit stingy."  
  
"Thank you." Ginny said, smiling at him.  
  
"It's the least I can do, after all the pain I have caused you." Noginski told her, "To get to my friends house you must first travel to the England Floo Hub, and travel from there to Timber Tump. Ask anyone there for the address of Samuel Grantings, you'll find it easily."  
  
"Thank you." Draco said, "I suppose we should be on our way."  
  
"Don't be ridiculous!" Noginski exclaimed, "You will spend the night here, and eat breakfast with us in the morning. You can leave after that."  
  
"I suppose that'd be better." Draco admitted, and Ginny, who was looking distant, nodded in agreement. Her eyes were cloudy, and she looked very young, "Weasley, you ready?"  
  
"Yeah." She said, and they followed Noginski to their rooms.  
  
"You can, if you want, have separate rooms." He offered, but after some thought, the two teenagers decided to share, "And you can keep the Transo- Phones Miss Weasley, I'm sure that I don't need them."  
  
"Thanks." She replied. They entered their room and collapsed on the beds without getting changed.  
  
***  
  
"This is outrageous." Said Lucius, for what seemed like the hundredth time.  
  
"Outrageous or not, you'll still need to answer the question Malfoy." Remus said angrily, ""What did you and Draco fight about, and why does your wife have no recollection of that evening at all."  
  
"I am an upstanding and influential member of society, and I demand that I am treated better than this!"  
  
"No one doubts how moral and upstanding you are. But you have been dangerously close to being put in Azkaban a great many times now, and I don't think all the morality and influence in the world is going to keep you out of it this time." Remus narrowed his eyes, "What did you and Draco fight about?"  
  
But Lucius refused to answer, and no matter how many times he asked, Remus could not get the Ministries approval for using a truth spell. He sighed impatiently. It was going to be a long night.  
  
***  
  
The sunlight burnt Ginny's eyes when she opened them, and she quickly turned over and buried her face in the pillow. After a few moments she braved the light again, and forced herself to keep her eyes open. After a while of just lying in bed, she got up, and almost tripped over.  
  
She had forgotten how long her robes were, and stumbled several times before standing properly. Once she had hoisted up her robes, she walked over to Draco's bed, where he was still asleep.  
  
Draco sleeping was a breath taking sight. All the cruelty, anger and pain that usually dominated his face was gone, and he looked like a normal teenager. And Noginski had been right, Draco wasn't ugly. Now that the sneer was off his face, he actually looked quite handsome, in his own way.  
  
He woke while Ginny was looking at him, and although he made no show of it, she knew. The coldness came back to his face.  
  
"You don't have to pretend to be asleep." She told him, and his eyes snapped open.  
  
"I thought that you might be enjoying the view." He replied, looking annoyed, "How did you know?"  
  
"You look peaceful when you sleep, happier." She explained.  
  
"You know it's quite creepy to have someone watch you while you sleep." He said, sitting up.  
  
"You watch me when I visit Tom, isn't that the same?" Ginny asked, walking over to the mirror and brushing her hair. She noticed that someone had brought their trunks to their room while they slept, and opened them to find some clean clothes.  
  
"Is it? I hadn't thought of it like that." He answered, still sitting on his bed. Ginny took some clothes from her trunk and went into the bathroom to the left of her. Once inside she changed into some robes, and let out a startled cry when she was done. Immediately Draco burst into the room, wand raised. He had obviously been in the middle of dressing himself, as he was only wearing his boxers.  
  
"What's wrong?" he asked.  
  
"The clothes! They fit!" She said, looking down in amazement. Draco looked at her like she was insane, "Malfoy, we bought the clothes several sizes too big. Unless I had a growth spurt in the night, something very strange has happened."  
  
"You're right." He said, picking up one of her muggle t-shirts and inspecting it carefully. After a moment he smiled and passed it back to her, "It's alright, they've just been charmed to fit the wearer. Noginski must have done it while we slept."  
  
"That's nice." Ginny said, looking at Draco with a raised eyebrow, "Now maybe you'd like to put some clothes on."  
  
Draco looked down at himself, yelped, and hurried back into their room, slamming the door behind him.  
  
***  
  
At eight o'clock a student summoned them to the dining hall and led them to the staff table. They sat on either side of Noginski, Ginny sitting at the end and Draco sitting next to a young man with dark blond hair.  
  
"Professor, can I ask you something?" Ginny asked.  
  
"Anything." Noginski told her.  
  
"Poltrick, the school...you said that she protected her inhabitants." She said, "When I was inside my mind, Tom pointed a wand at me, and something happened, I was taken out of my mind. And I felt something, like a presence."  
  
"Ah, you have run into the question that has plagued scholars for generations." He told her, "Whether or not Poltrick is alive and sentient. I myself have no doubt that she is, and I have often felt that I could almost converse with her."  
  
"So the school is alive? How?" Ginny asked.  
  
"There are many theories," Noginski said, "The most popular being that the original Head Mistress of Poltrick sacrificed herself during an attack on the school, and channelled her spirit into the building so that she could protect her students better. It is true that during the first attack on Poltrick the Head Mistress did die, and it is true that the school created a moat of molten stone to keep the invaders out, but there is no proof that the two incidents ate connected. I believe that when Poltrick wants us to know how she came into being, she will tell us."  
  
"That's amazing." The young girl sighed.  
  
"It is. Is there anything else you would like to ask me?" He asked.  
  
"Well, no, but I'd like to thank you for the charm." Ginny said, indicating to her clothes.  
  
"Oh, it was no trouble. I noticed that you were having a few problems when you resumed your...ah...regular appearance." He said, smiling, "You will be in disguise when you leave?"  
  
"Probably." She replied, glancing at Draco who was conversing with the young professor, "I'm supposed to be dead, after all."  
  
"Yes, I suppose you are." He lowered his voice, and leaned towards her, "Why exactly have you chosen not to go to the Ministry? Or at least let them know of your continued existence?"  
  
"Malfoy thinks that if they couldn't find a way to get rid of Tom they'd probably give me to the Dementors, so that he could never break free." She explained, "Also, I think he's a bit scared that they might give him back to his father if we go to them."  
  
"Yes, your Minister, Fudge, does seem to be the type." He sighed, and began to talk normally, "Well, if you ever need to return here, for any reason, you're welcome too. Even after you get rid of your...guest."  
  
"Thank you." She said, and tucked into the food that had appeared in front of her. It came with no elaborate ceremony like the lunch the previous day had, but tasted just as good. Afterwards, Noginski led Ginny and Draco to a large fireplace, and handed them two rucksacks.  
  
"Just a few supplies." He told them, "To help you on your way. I am terribly sorry that you could not find your cure here Miss Bowcott."  
  
Ginny felt startled, but then smiled. He was hinting that they should change.  
  
"Oh, right." Draco muttered, pulling out the blue bottle. He set all his things down on the floor, and Ginny did the same. They drank their potion at the same time, and felt the gut retching pain once more. This time Draco was able to remain standing, although Ginny, one again, fell to her knees. But once the pain had passed, Ginny stood up, and smiled weakly. The clothes had changed to fit her, and she picked up her two bags.  
  
"I hope to see you both again, except maybe under better circumstances." Noginski said, and held out his hand to shake Draco's. The boy took it, and smiled slightly. He turned to Ginny offered his hand once more. She shook it lightly, and then turned to the fireplace. Draco took the Floo powder Noginski offered him, and chucked it into the fireplace.  
  
"England Floo Hub!" He stated firmly, and disappeared in a blaze of green light. After a moments pause, Ginny followed him.  
  
***  
  
'Vessel- a human being used to hold the soul or essence of another human being using either possession or soul transference. The idea is theoretical, and has only ever been researched by one Ivan Noginski.'  
  
Well, that's not right." Ron said, looking over Hermione's shoulder, "The vessel we're looking for isn't theoretical."  
  
"No, it isn't." Agreed Hermione, shutting the book. They had got up early to do some more research on vessels, but had had no luck, "Where's Harry?"  
  
"In bed, he got in late last night." Ron told her, "He was with Blaise Zabini."  
  
"For two people who are really concerned with finding Malfoy, they are helping very little." Hermione snapped, glaring at the book. It was a dictionary of magical references and they'd gone through three pages devoted to the different meanings of the word 'vessel'. She put it in her bag, just in case they got any more clues, "We might as well face it, unless we get more information, we havn't a hope of finding him."  
  
"We could get Harry to pump Blaise for information." Ron suggested, and then pulled a face, "Uck, I just got a visual of that."  
  
"Ron, that's disgusting!" Hermione exclaimed, standing up to leave. He followed suit, still pulling a face.  
  
"I know, and I'm the one imagining it!" He assured her as they left the library. They made their way to the Great hall and found Harry waiting for them.  
  
"Where have you been?" Hermione snapped.  
  
"Bed." He mumbled, running his hand through his dishevelled hair.  
  
"Well, we've been researching, and we could have really used your help." She told him, helping herself to some toast. The hall was suddenly filled with the sound of owls, and Hermione looked up, waiting for her mail to arrive. The oil that delivered the daily prophet landed next to her, and she gave it some toast before it flew away again. She picked up the paper, and gasped, "Oh, look at this!"  
  
Lucius Malfoy, Arrested  
  
Yesterday Lucius Malfoy was arrested on suspicion of murdering his sixteen- year-old son, Draco Malfoy. The boy, who attends Hogwarts School of Witch Craft and Wizardry, has been missing for some time, but his father refused to report it, claiming that Draco had transferred schools. Yesterday he admitted, after questioning, that he had fought with his son, and that he had run away. He refused to comment on what the argument was about, and has denied allegations that he has murdered his son. Lucius is already in hot water with the Ministry because of his alleged involvement with the incident in Diagon Alley in August. Although he was found innocent in that case he is still under heavy suspicion from most the public.  
  
Lucius' wife, Narcissa Malfoy, has no memory of the evening, and is believed to be under a memory spell. The Minister of magic, Cornelius Fudge, had taken special interest in this case...  
  
"They havn't mentioned that he's a Death Eater." Ron pointed out. He looked upset, which Hermione presumed was because of the mention of the Diagon Alley incident that killed Ginny.  
  
"Yes they have, look here, at the bottom. 'Lucius has already been accused of being a Death Eater, and was caught by Harry potter with several escaped Azkaban Prisoners. He was not found guilty because...' and then it goes off into some legal reasons." Hermione told them, "He could finally get put away!"  
  
"I doubt it." Harry said, "He'll probably get off on some technicality. But if Malfoy's really running from his dad, this might be enough to get him to come back. I don't think he'll like people thinking he's dead."  
  
***  
  
"Hey, look at this!" Draco said, pointing at the newspaper. From the front page a picture of his father glowered at him. He bought it quickly and brought it over to Ginny, who was peering into Ollivanders. They read the newspaper together, and looked up at each other in astonishment, "Looks like we're both dead."  
  
"Well, they've only legally declared you missing." Ginny assured him, "Look at this! He tried to cover it up, said you'd moved school."  
  
"Mother doesn't remember anything? He must have put a memory charm on her." Draco said, looking astounded, "What a bastard. And it's a good thing we've got our disguises, they've asked people to keep an eye out for me."  
  
"And they've even got pictures." Ginny pointed, "How old were you in that one, seven?"  
  
"That was probably my mother's helpful input." Draco growled, "I bet she feels bad about not helping me more. She shouldn't though, last I saw of her was being put under the Imperus Curse."  
  
"But that's illegal!" The young girl gasped.  
  
"Weasley, remember who we're dealing with here. Putting a few illegal curses on my mother really doesn't compare with the slaughtering of Muggles and Wizarding folk alike." Draco reminded her, "So, why are we hanging around old Ollivanders?"  
  
"Just being wistful." Ginny admitted, "I've only ever had my brother's old wand, and now I don't have a wand at all, your father took it. I'm feeling a bit powerless."  
  
"And how is that wistful thinking?" He asked, shaking his head, "When are you going to get through your thick skull that while you're with me you're not poor? Ok, I'm not exactly going to buy you everything in sight, but the necessities are all yours. And what's a Witch without a wand?"  
  
With Ginny beaming, and Draco looking slightly pleased, the two of them entered Ollivanders. Mr Ollivander himself looked a bit confused when he saw them, his eyes kept on focusing and un-focusing, as if he were not sure what he was seeing.  
  
"Miss Weasley?" He asked uncertainly.  
  
"Do we look like Weasley's to you?" Draco snapped, feeling slightly nervous. He had not expected to be recognized, "And isn't Miss Weasley the girl who died here a couple of months ago?"  
  
"Of course, my apologies." Ollivander said, his eyes still looking unfocused.  
  
"My cousin, Emily Bowcott, needs a wand." The boy said. He glanced over at Ginny, who looked visibly shaken.  
  
"Yes, good, what's your wand arm?" He asked, and Ginny raised her right arm. He began measuring, and she glanced nervously at Draco.  
  
"Hm, these measurements are odd." Ollivander told her, "You look to me to be 5 ft 7, but my measurer insists that you are only 5 ft 2. How odd. But my measurements are never wrong, and I will not argue with them. Let's try this, Willow and unicorn hair, 12 inches, a bit springy but still sturdy."  
  
Ginny waved the wand, but with no effect.  
  
"No? All right then, how about this, Oak and dragon heartstring, thirteen inches, very strong." He handed it over to her, but yet again nothing happened. "Ok, chestnut and Phoenix feather, ten and a half inches, lithe, very good for the Patronus Charm if you ever wished to learn it."  
  
"I already know the Patronus Charm." Ginny said before she could stop herself. Ollivander and Draco looked at her in surprise and she tried not to look guilty. There was nothing wrong with knowing that charm! Never the less... "Well, I don't think it'd be any good against a Dementor, but it's corporeal, and kinda cute."  
  
"What is it?" Draco asked.  
  
"A fox." She told him. Thinking about her Patronus brought back memories of her DA classes, and a small frown creased her face. She waved the wand with little effect, and hardly noticed when a new wand was placed in her hand. She waved it once, and a burst of red and gold sparks showered them all.  
  
"Well done Miss Bowcott!" Ollivander exclaimed, clapping slightly, "But I must say, this is odd. I never intended to sell that wand, but it did seem so fitting."  
  
"Why not?" Ginny asked, inspecting the wand in her hand.  
  
"Yew and Unicorn hair, fourteen inches and three quarters. I was very surprised when I felt the urge to put it together." He told her, "Yew and unicorn hair so seldom work well together. And the tree I got the wood from was said to be under a curse. I only made two wands from that tree, and the first one, which I sold over fifty years ago, went into the world and almost destroyed it. I said to myself that I would not sell the second one, but I cannot deny a witch of wizard their wand. I sold the first wand to He Who Must Not Be Named, and now I sell it's twin to you."  
  
Ginny's first urge was to throw the wand back in his face and to storm out, but her hand would not let go of the wand, and she knew deep down that she could not refuse it. It was hers, and she couldn't get rid of it.  
  
"How much?" Draco asked, and paid the given amount. They left the shop together, and walked in silence for a long time.  
  
"It's not really that surprising." He said after a while, "He is in your mind, so it must have had to take into consideration you and Tom."  
  
"So when we finally get rid of him, my wand won't work so well anymore?" Ginny asked.  
  
"I dunno, don't you think there'll always be a part of Tom inside you?" Draco pointed out.  
  
"Malfoy, that was almost deep and meaningful." She said, laughing slightly.  
  
"Oh dear, I'll have to watch out for that." He said smirking, and then cursed himself. He hated it, he really did, but he was becoming friends with the Weasel. She was just so much friendlier then anyone in Slytherin, and with her he didn't have to worry about ulterior motives. If she said that she liked what he was wearing, it meant that she did, and not that she wanted him to look like a fashion less moron.  
  
"Why were you so surprised that I could conjure a Patronus?" Ginny asked.  
  
"I don't know, I just didn't think that anyone in our school had that much power." He replied.  
  
"Um, not meaning to burst you bubble or anything, but pretty much all your year, most of mine and quite a few in the year above you know how to do it." She told him, "Harry taught us, he's known how ever since he was a third year."  
  
"You're kidding me!" He exclaimed, looking surprised, "Third Year? Most adults can't do it, and he learnt when he was in third year. And he taught bloody well everyone else. Bloody Marvellous. Us Slytherins must look like bloody idiots."  
  
"Well yeah, but it's not because you can't conjure a patronus!" She assured him.  
  
"Well then, why do you think we're idiots?" Draco asked.  
  
"Because you refuse to work with the rest of the school, and most of you allied yourselves with Umbridge and against Dumbledore, even though it's obvious who was right." Ginny explained, "And because your think that Muggles and Muggle Born's are below you, and because a lot of you are going to grow up to be Death Eaters, and because you all try to make Harry's life miserable even though he's really important and-"  
  
"Bloody Harry Potter!" Draco exclaimed, "It's all about him to you, isn't it? Wonderful Harry bloody Potter, isn't he great? He has a disfiguring scar, so let's all swoon when he looks at us. You're so bloody obvious, and you're such a fan girl. You don't like Harry because he's nice, you like him because he's famous. You're a-a...groupie!"  
  
"Malfoy, I've been over Harry for over a year now." Ginny told him coldly.  
  
"What? You have?"  
  
"Yes." She said, her eyes narrowed, "In my fourth year I started to really get to know him, and I realised that as sweet as he was, I wasn't interested in him like that. So I started dating other people, and I've been much happier since."  
  
"So no more 'His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad'?" Draco asked, a grin creeping onto his face.  
  
"Oh my god, I can't believe you remembered that!" She squealed. The body she inhabited didn't blush easily, but pink tinges had appeared on her pale cheeks.  
  
"His hair is as dark as a blackboard!" He shouted happily and she tried to cover his mouth.  
  
"Shut up Malfoy!" She said, but she was laughing as well as they struggled. They must have been making quite a scene, but neither seemed to care  
  
"I wish he was mine," He sang.  
  
"You memorised it, you complete bastard!"  
  
"He's really divine," More laughter, "Come on Weasley, it was hardly difficult."  
  
"I hate you! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"  
  
"The Hero who conquered the Dark Lord!" And with that she made one last lunge at him, and they both toppled to the floor in the middle of the street, laughing as they fell. But when they landed Ginny heard a sickening crack, and she looked at Draco in horror, sure that he had broken a bone. But he just looked confused, and was looking round to see where the sound had come from. A panicked look formed on his face as he reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a broken amulet.  
  
He scrambled to his feet and dragged Ginny up with him, muttering swear words under his breath.  
  
"No, no, no, no." He said, staring at the broken object, "Fuck shit no. We are so screwed."  
  
"What's happened?" Ginny asked, feeling fear rise inside her. Draco was really scared. But before he could answer a familiar crack filled the air, the sound of people apparating near them.  
  
It was Remus Lupin, Kingsley Shacklebolt...and Lucius Malfoy.  
  
"Just start walking." Draco hissed, tugging her arm, "Glance curiously at them or something, but don't stop walking, and don't make eye contact."  
  
Ginny did as she was ordered, but some part of her wanted to run over to Remus and Kingsley and tell them that it was her, that she was alive. All she had to do was go to them, and she could go home and see her family.  
  
"They'll find out." Draco said, as if reading her mind, "They'll find out and send you to the Dementors. And if they find out that I'm safe and well, they'll send me back to my father, and then he probably will kill me."  
  
"How did they find us?" Ginny asked, and then another thought occurred to her, "How comes they couldn't find us before?"  
  
"See this amulet?" He opened his hand to show her, "It stops me, and whoever I'm travelling with being able to be tracked using tracking spells. And now it's broken, hence the arrival of my father and the ministry goons."  
  
"Those aren't ministry goons." Snapped Ginny, "That's Remus and Kingsley. Remus was our teacher, remember?"  
  
"Oh yeah, him." Draco nodded, "Didn't he have to leave because, well, he was a...werewolf."  
  
Oh dear, Ginny thought to herself. Even in human form, werewolves had much keener senses then normal people. Could he smell them?  
  
Remus was walking towards them, trying to push people out of the way. Kingsley was right behind him, dragging Lucius along.  
  
"Run!" Draco yelled, and Ginny tore away, not looking where she was going. She could see Draco running in the opposite direction, and hoped the fact that they had split up would aid them.  
  
She ran until she reached the floo network, and flung a few sickles at the man before running into the nearest fireplace. It was actually a really stupid thing to do, but Ginny was too terrified to make any decisions, and just wanted to put as much distance between her and the men as possible.  
  
I can't believe I'm running away from Remus and Kingsley! She thought to herself when she walked through the grate she had arrived in. These are the people who are supposed to protect me. A high-pitched feminine voice interrupted her thoughts.  
  
"Welcome to California!"  
  
***  
  
SiLvA-423: thanks  
  
Ohepelss Oramtnci: *Riddle ignores reviewer* He's so rude, isn't he?  
  
Hplova4eva: Thankie thankie  
  
Icanreadandcount: No Aidan in this chap, although we will see him again!  
  
A.N.: I'm thinking of taking a little break from this story for a while to catch up on some stuff I'm doing on fictionpress.net, unless any one has any serious objections to that and desperately wants me to continue. 


	11. Rufina Moody

Disclaimer: Not mine.  
  
A.N.- I approach fanfiction the same way I approach things that may be chocolate. Approach thing that may be chocolate. Pick up thing that may be chocolate. Taste thing that may be chocolate. Mmmmmm chocolate. That is how I approach fanfiction. Mmmmmm fanfiction.  
  
A.N.2- I've never been to California, hell, I've never even been to America, and I've only ever met a few Americans, so my interpretation of what California is like is gonna come mainly from what I've seen in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Don't kill me if I get it wrong.  
  
A.N.3- Another one? Geez. Just a thought, if anyone would like to do some fanart for this fic, I'd be more than happy to put a link to it in one of my chapters. I'm a major fanart fan. Just send them to my e-mail address.  
  
Dedicated to my Beta Dom  
  
*** Rufina Moody ***  
  
America. She was in America. America was the thing she was in. That was a piece of really bad English. See! It was affecting her already!  
  
"May I see your key please?" Asked the woman behind the desk who smiled at her with big lips.  
  
"Yeah, sure." Ginny reached into her robes and pulled out the long silver key the Goblin at Gringotts had given her. It seemed like such a long time ago, when Malfoy was still the enemy, and not to be trusted.  
  
"Welcome to America Miss Bowcott." The assistant said, checking the name on the key, "You came in quite a hurry, is there anything you need?"  
  
"Um yeah, I need to get out some money, and find a place to stay for the night." Ginny explained. She was thankful that she had bought a wand; she couldn't imagine the idea of being in another country without one.  
  
"So you'll be wanting to go to Ascentmur, it's the nearest wizarding town, you'll be able to find go to the bank there, and find a hotel." The assistant told her, passing back to key, "Grate six is permanently locked to Ascentmur, so just go right through. I hope you enjoy your stay in Sunny California!"  
  
Ginny nodded, feeling slightly fearful at such enthusiasm. She walked over to the fireplace that had a number six hanging above it and walked through. She reappeared in a very small floo hub, and was greeted by a slightly less cheerful assistant.  
  
"Hello, my names Rufina." Said the girl. She looked to be in her early twenties, and had red hair that was similar to Ginny's own, "How may I help you?"  
  
"I'm looking for a place to stay for the night, and I'll need to get some money out of the bank." Ginny explained.  
  
"Here's a map of the town. It's very small, so you won't have problem's finding your way around. We do advice getting home before dark; our town has had some history with vampire attacks." She handed over the small leaflet, "Enjoy your stay."  
  
"Thanks, I will." Ginny assured her, and walked outside. The town was beautiful, it was built with Victorian architect in mind, and was not spoilt any modern inputs. Ginny wandered around for an hour, just taking in the sights, before making her way to the hotel, where she used the rest of the money Malfoy had given her to rent a room for the night. The room was small but comfortable, and Ginny left most her possessions inside it before venturing out again, in search of the bank.  
  
It took her a good half an hour to find the small building, and once inside she found herself confronted with not only Goblins, but also millions of fairies. As she knew from her Care Of Magical Creatures lessons, fairies were not the sweet natured helpers muggles made them out to be, and were far more likely to bite your nose off then grant you a wish. And yet these little critters were doing exactly as the Goblins told them too.  
  
"They have far more respect for Goblins than they do for humans." Came a voice from behind her. A Goblin stood there, smiling benignly, "how may I help you?"  
  
"I'd like to get some money out." Ginny explained.  
  
"Your key?" He asked, and Ginny reached into her robes and pulled it out, handing it over to the Goblin. He inspected it for some time, before calling another Goblin and passing it to him, saying something in a language she couldn't understand. They conversed for a long time, before the one that had approached her originally coughed and turned to her.  
  
"There seems to be a problem, would you please come this way?" he asked her, leading her to an office. She followed him, feeling slightly worried. Once inside, he left her, and worry turned to panic when she heard a slight click that told her that the Goblin had locked her in.  
  
***  
  
Draco headed straight for Knockturn Alley, running as fast as was humanly possible. Several times he was sure that Lupin was right behind him, but was able to dodge him each time. Once he reached the dark Alley he slipped inside a pub that had the words 'No Werewolves' written in bog words. Lupin tried to follow him inside by a sudden klaxon sounded and Lupin was cut off. Draco slipped out the back, and into another shop.  
  
"How may I help you?" asked Mr Borgin, the owner of Borgin and Burkes.  
  
"I need something to stop myself from being tracked." He told the man, "I had the Amulet of Cain, but it broke."  
  
"It broke." Said Mr Borgin, his voice deadpan.  
  
"It was an accident, not my fault." Draco insisted. The Amulet of Cain was one-of-a-kind, and ridiculously expensive; "I really need something to stop myself from being tracked."  
  
"Well, I do have something, it won't be cheap though." The shop owner told him, bending down to get something fro below the desk. It was a bracelet, not as beautiful as his broken amulet, but still quite fine, "This beauty holds two charmed stones, onyx and fluorite. It'll deflect all tracking spells, but it'll be no good if you're in eyeshot of the person searching for you."  
  
"That'll be great, thanks." Draco said, buying the bracelet. He'd always wondered why so many valuable items came in the form of jewellery. Why couldn't some one make a magical belt? Putting the bracelet on as he left the shop, and bumped straight into Narcissa Malfoy.  
  
"Come with me." She said sternly, grabbing him before he could run. She dragged him all the way to a pub called 'The Fwooper and Gnome', and pulled him into a secluded booth.  
  
"Well Draco, you've royally screwed up this time, havn't you?" She snapped, glaring at him.  
  
"My names not Draco." He tried, marvelling at his mother's ability to recognize him.  
  
"Don't try that with me young man, my tracking spell was pointing straight at you until you bought that bracelet." She told him, "You're just lucky you lost that werewolf, otherwise you'd be in even deeper trouble than you already are."  
  
"I don't know what I'm going to do." He admitted, "The newspaper said that you don't remember anything about the night I ran away."  
  
"Yes, your damn father put a memory spell on me." She sighed, "What exactly happened?"  
  
"Um, I found out that Father was holding a girl in our house against her will, so I rescued her, sort of." Draco explained.  
  
"Damn that man!" She snapped, looking furious, "Where is she? The girl I mean."  
  
"Last I saw her she was running off the Floo Hub." He told her, "I have to find her; I don't think she can manage on her own."  
  
"Didn't you arrange a place to meet her if you got separated?" Narcissa asked.  
  
"Huh? Oh yeah!" He grinned sheepishly, "I can't believe I forgot. I need to meet her at-"  
  
"Don't tell me you fool! What if your father tortures it out of me?" She asked, "Honestly, you're not very good at this, are you?"  
  
"Well, I had a neat little plan in my head." Draco admitted, "But it doesn't seem to be going to well. The girl, her name's Ginny Weasley, she has something wrong with her, and we're trying to find a cure. It's not going to well."  
  
"I wish I could help you Draco, I really wish I could, but I have enough troubles of my own." She reached out and took his hand, "I was so sure that your father had murdered you, and I was so scared, I can't tell you how happy I am that you're safe and well. But now that the Ministry know that you're alive they're going to release your father from custody, and he'll stop at nothing to find you."  
  
"That's why I bought this bracelet." He told her, showing it to her, "It'll stop me from being tracked."  
  
"At least you're not too much of a fool." She laughed, "Find a place to stay tonight, and go and meet Ginny tomorrow. And I hope all this will be over soon."  
  
They rose from their seats, and she placed her hands on his shoulders and kissed his forehead.  
  
"I love you Draco, please be careful." She whispered.  
  
"I will." He promised, "Goodbye Mother."  
  
***  
  
"Let me out!" Ginny shouted, banging on the door, "There's been a mistake! I'm innocent of whatever crime you're accusing me of! Just let me out!"  
  
At that point the door unlocked and Rufina, the girl who had welcomed Ginny to the town, walked in, followed by the two Goblins. They were all frowning.  
  
"According to these Goblins, the key you gave them was a fake, and you are not, in actual fact, Emily Bowcott." She said, her voice devoid of its previous friendliness.  
  
"I am!" Ginny insisted, "Please, you just have to talk to the Goblins at Gringotts, they'll explain everything."  
  
"Hehezkel, will you see to it?" Rufina asked.  
  
"Ask for Hurtzaz!" Ginny added as the Goblin walked away.  
  
"We will wait for Hehezkel's reply, and if it turns out you are lying, we will have you arrested." The young woman told her, and Ginny felt herself tremble with fear.  
  
"I'm not lying, you just wait." She muttered to herself. But fear was growing in her stomach. What if Hurtzaz didn't care about her, and said that she was lying? How would she get back to Malfoy?  
  
After a few minutes the Goblin called Hehezkel returned, his face twisted in fear.  
  
"We are most sorry Miss Bowcott." He stuttered, his eyes as wide as platters, "This was a terrible accident, we are very sorry."  
  
"Her story checks out?" Rufina asked, looking confused.  
  
"Yes, she is indeed who she says she is." The Goblin told her, but when she turned her back to him, he whispered something in the other Goblin's ear, and he glanced fearfully at Ginny.  
  
"I suppose my cousin was mentioned?" Ginny asked with a sigh.  
  
"Yes, Nathaniel was mentioned." Hehezkel admitted, "If we had any idea who you were, we would not have even considered questioning you."  
  
"No, you probably wouldn't have." She muttered to herself, "So, can I go now?"  
  
"Of course!" The two Goblins smiled widely, "Um, you, uh, won't be mentioning this to your family, will you?"  
  
"No, of course not." Ginny assured them, "I just want to get back to the hotel."  
  
"We will provide you with transport!" Hehezkel insisted, and Ginny found herself being taken back to the hotel in a horse driven carriage.  
  
***  
  
The next day Ginny awoke, and lay in bed for a very long time. For the first time in a long while she felt completely safe, and this made her smile.  
  
She got up and pulled on her clothes, brushing her long black hair. She gazed at herself in the mirror, and sighed sadly. She missed her old self, missed her red hair and her freckles. But there was nothing she could do about it.  
  
She packed her bag and walked to the reception of the hotel, signing out. They were extremely polite to her, and she supposed word must have travelled about who she was. The Goblins knew that she was connected to the Malfoy's, of that she was sure, and they had probably told everyone that the Bowcott's were a very important family so she would receive the same respect a Malfoy would get.  
  
"Is there anything we can do for you?" The receptionist asked, and a thought occurred to her.  
  
"Um, could you tell me where the nearest Letter Hub is?" She asked, her thoughts wandering to Aidan.  
  
"Yes, there's one just a little walk from here." The receptionist told her, and gave her direction, which Ginny memorised. The walk was enjoyable, as it gave her some time to think about what had happened to her over the last few days. In only a few short days Malfoy had turned from the enemy to a friend, almost. She still wasn't sure that she trusted him completely, but she knew that he was on her side for the moment.  
  
The Letter Hub was a small building that had a gold letter engraved on its door. She entered, and found herself having to duck as several envelopes zoomed past her.  
  
"Hello, my name is Hermus, and how may I help you?" Came a voice from under a stack of letters. A moment later a face appeared. The speaker was a small man with large glasses and a wonky smile.  
  
"Hello, my names Emily Bowcott, I was wondering if I had any letters?" She asked.  
  
"Ah yes, Miss Bowcott, we all heard about you last night." He said, smiling, "Rufina was livid, she was quite caught up with the idea of catching a criminal, and was very angry when you turned out to be innocent."  
  
"Why did she want to catch a criminal?" Ginny asked, frowning.  
  
"Oh, her father is quite a famous Auror in England, she wants to follow in his footsteps, but hasn't quite got the talent." He explained, "You may have heard of him, his name is Alastor Moody."  
  
Ginny was unable to hide her shock, her mouth fell open. Mad-Eye Moody had a daughter! Who on earth was the mother?  
  
"You've heard of Moody then!" Hermus said, laughing.  
  
"He knows my father." Ginny admitted, trying not to give too much away, "I had no idea that he had a daughter."  
  
"Most people don't, he doesn't like people knowing he has a weakness." He told her, "Now, about your letter." He walked over to what looked like a long golden tube, and tapped his wand against it, "Emily Bowcott!"  
  
An envelope shot out from the tube and he caught it in his hand and passed it over, "That'll be fifteen knuts please." He said as she took the envelope.  
  
"Thank you." Ginny said as she paid. She waited until she was outside before opening the letter. It was from Aidan, and she felt a tiny thrill about receiving a letter from someone so famous.  
  
Dear Emily, It's a good thing Nathaniel asked me for that favour, for as soon as I had returned to the Hotel; I found it full of Death Eaters, all looking for you! I told them you had gone to Spain, and they seemed to believe me. They told me that you and Nathaniel had run away from home, and I would have believed them if I hadn't seen the Dark Mark on one their arms. I know you're in trouble, and if you ever need any help just write to me. I don't know much about you, but if the Death Eaters are your enemies, then we're on the same side. What I really want to know is how someone so young could have got involved with Death Eaters! But I'm sure you can't tell me that. Please write to me if you need anything at all, and I'll see what I can do. Yours faithfully Aidan  
  
"Oh Aidan." She muttered, "I wish I could answer all your questions."  
  
She wrote him a quick reply, telling him that she was safe, and grateful for all his help, and took it to the towns Post Office. The staff looked at her strangely when they saw who it was too.  
  
"Letters to celebrities are usually sent to their fan clubs." One man said. Ginny sighed in frustration, but then decided to use the influence the name Bowcott seemed to have. Once she told them who she was, they seemed more than happy to send the letter.  
  
***  
  
Draco had spent the night in a room in the Leaky Cauldron. When he awoke, he made his way downstairs and ordered himself some breakfast, and ate it quietly, watching the customers.  
  
He saw a great many people who he knew, and the urge to talk to them was almost irresistible. But what would he say? 'Hello, I may not look like it, but I'm really Draco Malfoy, only don't tell my dad'? Not very likely.  
  
After break fast he ventured out into Diagon Alley, keeping a keen eye out for Ministry officials. After wandering for a little while he decided to check the Newspaper, and found his name in Headlines. He bought the paper quickly and began reading.  
  
Draco Malfoy found in disguise by werewolf Auror The boy who has recently gone missing was yesterday spotted by Auror Remus Lupin, but was in disguise. The only reason Lupin was able to recognize him was because of his werewolf capabilities. Many people have objected to the Ministries choice of employing the werewolf, but will they be so against it if he is able to find and bring home Draco Malfoy? "I've never had anything against werewolves" Said Fudge, Minister of Magic, "And I feel that anyone who can help us find Draco is very welcome in the Ministry" Now that there is no doubt the he is alive, Draco's father, Lucius Malfoy, has been realised, and all charges against him have been dropped. "No one believed me when I said I didn't kill my son." Said an angry Lucius Malfoy, "But now that it has been proved, we can all focus on what's important, finding Draco and bringing him back safe." Draco Malfoy currently looks like a seventeen to eighteen-year-old boy with black hair. He is approximately five ft nine. If anyone sees a boy matching that description could they please alert the ministry?  
  
Well there goes a perfectly good disguise, Draco thought to himself. But then again, how many black haired tall young men could there be in England? No, he was still safe.  
  
"It's a crime, what that Lucius Malfoy's getting away wiv'." Said the newspaper stand owner.  
  
"Yes, yes it is." Agreed Draco.  
  
"I tell ya, I'll feel much safer when e's behind bars." He said, "Think what ya like, e's a Death Eater, and e'll get what 'e deserves."  
  
"We can only hope." Draco replied with a smile and a nod, and then he turned away and began the walk towards the Diagon Alley Floo Hub.  
  
***  
  
"Ron, Harry, look at this!" Hermione said, handing them the Newspaper, "They've cleared Lucius Malfoy!"  
  
"They haven't." Ron said, aghast. He read they paper quickly and gasped, "They have! Those idiots."  
  
"Yeah, just because Malfoy's alive, doesn't mean that his dad didn't try to kill him." Harry agreed.  
  
"This means that he'll be redoubling his efforts to find Malfoy." Hermione told them, "Which means that we have to too."  
  
"But you already said, unless we get more information then we're going to get nowhere." Ron reminded her.  
  
"Then we'll have to do some research, that's all!" She said, "We can try and find out who else Lucius and Damien Zabini have been working with lately."  
  
"More homework?" Harry asked.  
  
"Come off it Harry, you have the easy part, all you have to do is talk to Blaise." Ron said, looking annoyed.  
  
"Yeah well, it turns out that talking isn't something that Blaise really enjoys." The dark haired boy muttered.  
  
"Oh Harry, what do you see in her?" Hermione asked.  
  
"I dunno, maybe I just crave drama." He said, "You know, I could have loads of girls here, and yet I always seem to choose the ones with issues."  
  
"I think it's you who's got issues." The red haired boy joked.  
  
"You've both got issues." Hermione snapped.  
  
***  
  
Ginny was making her way to the Floo Hub when she was cut off by an extremely angry looking red haired young woman.  
  
"I bet you're really pleased with yourself, fooling those Goblins." Rufina said, glaring at her.  
  
"I didn't fool anyone." Ginny corrected, "They checked at Gringotts, remember? It was just a mistake."  
  
"Goblins don't make mistakes." The older girl snapped, "I bet you just gave those Goblins at Gringotts a whole lot of money, so now they're kissing up. You're probably a Malfoy or something."  
  
"I'm not a Malfoy!" Ginny shouted, and then cursed herself for loosing control, "I'm not. They thought the key was a fake because I had to have my old key replaced when it was stolen. I don't think it's been properly registered yet." She lied.  
  
"I know when laws are being broken." Rufina told her, "My father is an Auror."  
  
"Yes, Alastor Moody, I heard." She said, "He's actually good friends with my parents."  
  
"Oh really? Well, I'll be checking that."  
  
"Fine, you do that." Ginny replied, feeling worried. What would happen when Rufina asked her father about the Bowcott's and he replied that he'd never heard of them? Then she'll probably tell him about a girl called Emily Bowcott who had lied, and she'd have to change identity again! "Ok, fine, I lied a little bit, but I haven't broken any laws! The thing is, my family had to change identities because of this...thing...that I'm not allowed to talk about, and our new keys aren't working very well. My parents do know your father, but I can't tell you their old names, in case you're working for our enemies."  
  
That was some fancy bit of lying, and it seemed very unrealistic to Ginny, but Rufina's eyes were wide with excitement, and Ginny couldn't help adding a little extra.  
  
"My parents are Aurors as well, and they were training me to be. But they've sent me away because they're worried that someone may have found out about who we really are." She whispered.  
  
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry about giving you such a hard time!" Rufina apologised, "If I'd known... Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. And I'm not working for any Aurors enemies, but you're right not to trust me, you can't trust anyone. But you've attracted too much attention here; we have to get you out before your enemies hear about you. Is that why you were so offended when I called you a Malfoy? Are the Malfoy's your enemies?"  
  
"Well, I'm not supposed to tell anyone, but yeah." Ginny said, feeling guilty about lying. But then again, this was closer to the truth then she'd told Aidan. And any way, this girl was obviously quite mad, and Ginny didn't think she could handle the truth.  
  
Rufina took her to the building that she'd arrived in the day before and showed her to the grate that was connected to the California Floo Hub.  
  
"I hope you don't get caught." Said the older girl, looking around shiftily. "Good luck!"  
  
"Thank, bye!" Ginny said, before stepping into the flames. She arrived a moment later in the Floo Hub which she had arrived in yesterday.  
  
"Hi, I hope you enjoyed your visit at Ascentmur." Said the Floo assistant, "Where would you like to go today?"  
  
"To the Diagon Alley Floo Hub." Ginny requested, handing over her money. She was led to a grate, and made her request before disappearing into the flames.  
  
***  
  
Ginny and Draco arrived within minutes of each other at the Covent Garden Floo Extension, and were so pleased to see each other in one piece that they almost hugged, almost. Instead they ended up doing this strange dodging dance before shaking hands.  
  
"I was really worried." Ginny told him, "I ended up in America! And I thought that you'd been captured by Remus."  
  
"I got away all right, and I bought myself a new charm to stop us from being tracked." He assured her, "Look at this."  
  
He passed her the newspaper, which she read quickly, "I can't believe they dropped the charges! Hasn't it occurred to them there might be a reason you ran away?"  
  
"Well, they are idiots." He paused, and then continued talking, "I also saw my mother while we were separated. She knew who I was, and we talked. It was nice to see her. But anyway, what happened in America?"  
  
She told him about Rufina Moody, and about almost being arrested, and about Aidan's letter. Her swore several times while she was talking, but apart from that didn't interrupt.  
  
"Well, at least we know we can trust Lynch." He said finally, "What now?"  
  
"Well, we still have to go to France, but I think we should have today off." She said with a mischievous grin, "Ever been shopping in Muggle London?"  
  
*** 


	12. Man On The Moon

A.N. I'm such a shipper. Everyone in my story must have a love interest! Hey, you, Luna! You want a boyfriend? Luna: I'm fine, thank you. You sure? Seamus is single. Or Dean Thomas! Now that he thinks Ginny's dead he could do with a rebound girl. Luna: No, really, I'm fine. This is my fic and you'll do what you're told! Luna: I won't! You won't use me in your evil schemes! *Magical duel ensues* Ok...so...you win...but mark my words, you will fall in love with Dean Thomas, and then you'll be begging me to extend my ships! Luna: Don't make me curse you again.  
  
Dedications: Dom, my Beta Reader.  
  
*** Man On The Moon ***  
  
Hey, Andy did you hear about this one? Tell me, are you locked in the punch?  
  
Hey Andy are you goofing on Elvis? Hey, baby Are we losing touch?  
  
If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon  
  
If you believe there's nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool  
  
R.E.M-Man on the Moon  
  
***  
  
"Look at that shop!" Draco almost shouted, dragging Ginny towards a shop that was filled with a purple light, "There are things in there that are floating! I didn't know Muggles could make things float!"  
  
Ever since they had arrived in Covent Garden, Draco had been acting like a child in a toyshop. He had never been to Muggle London, and was finding the experience very enjoyable, although every now and again he would stop and sneer at Muggle stupidity. He spent about five minutes laughing at someone struggling with a broken down car.  
  
But at the moment he was completely enthralled by the 'Gadget Shop'.  
  
"Look at! And that!" He exclaimed, pointing at the objects that were for sale, "And look at those bears! What are they...? Oh. That's disgusting!"  
  
He backed away from the case, looking thoroughly disgusted. Ginny peered at it, and then looked away hurriedly.  
  
"Muggles are disgusting." Draco said, shaking his head.  
  
"I didn't think that they could unzip their fur." Ginny agreed.  
  
"Especially there." He said with a grimace.  
  
"Let's go, I wanna get a sandwich or something." She said, dragging him out of the shop.  
  
"But I wanted to buy that glass chess set!" He whined miserably.  
  
"Why? It's not like it's wizard's chess." She reminded him, "I thought you hated everything Muggle related. You certainly thought my father a fool for loving them so much."  
  
"Yeah well...I mean...He is! What's the point obsessing over something like them?" He shrugged, "They just happen to have some mildly interesting things. Like how on earth did they get those spinning disks to float?"  
  
"I think they use magnets, or electricity." Ginny said, trying to remember what her father and Hermione had told her about Muggles, "Or...electromagnets."  
  
"You just made up that word." He accused her.  
  
"I did not!" She exclaimed, "Why would I make up a word? My father does work for the Department for the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts, so I do know a little about Muggles."  
  
"Electromagnets? That is the stupidest word I've ever heard." He muttered, and Ginny couldn't help but smile.  
  
***  
  
"You want me to ask my father?" Blaise asked, raising an eyebrow, "And what exactly would I say? 'Dear Father, please tell me everything you know about Lucius Malfoy so I can help Harry Potter and his friends rescue Draco'? I can't really see that working."  
  
"Try subtlety, I hear it works wonders." Harry sighed, "The thing of it is, we don't have enough information, and until we do, we're just going to be going around in circles. I'm not asking you to put yourself on the line or anything, because I know you wouldn't do that," There was a touch of bitterness in his voice, "We just need some more information, and you're the only one who can get it."  
  
"Harry, my father can't know that I'm helping you find Draco, do you understand that? If I show any interest in what he and Lucius where were getting up to he'll become suspicious." She hung her head slightly, a gesture she knew melted Harry's heart, "I want to help Draco, I really do, but there's only so much I can do."  
  
"Blaise, I don't think you understand what could happen if we don't find Malfoy before Lucius does." He said kindly, "He'll be killed. I'm guessing you've always been kept away from the more gruesome aspects of your Father's work, well I havn't. I know what someone looks like when they've been hit the Avada Kedavra curse, and as much as I hate the git, I don't want to see Malfoy dead."  
  
"Well what am I supposed to do? I can't help him, I'm just useless!" She was unable to keep the distress from her voice, and Harry wrapped his arms around her to calm her, "I'm so useless."  
  
"No you're not." He whispered soothingly.  
  
"I am, I can't help Draco, and he's going to be killed." Tears ran down her tan coloured skin, "And it'll be all my fault."  
  
And even then, when he was holding her in his arms, and kissing her forehead, Harry couldn't help but be slightly jealous of her feelings for Draco.  
  
***  
  
"Two salmon and cream cheese baguettes." Ginny ordered at a small sandwich bar.  
  
"That'll be five pounds forty." The man told her, and Ginny pulled out the money. At the Covent Garden Floo extension you could change your money into Muggle money, and Draco had spent a very long time inspecting the tiny coins.  
  
They took their food to little monument, and sat down on the steps, Draco looking quite out of place. Thy had both changed into the Muggle clothes that had bought, but something about Draco just screamed 'Magical Aristocrat'. He was certainly enjoying how good looking his new body was, several nervous girls had shuffled over to him and asked him for his number, before practically running away with embarrassment when he just stared at them, looking confused and yet still superior.  
  
"What do they mean by 'can I have your number'?" He asked Ginny.  
  
"They went your telephone number," she explained. Like her father, she enjoyed Muggle objects, even taking Muggle Studies in her third year before dropping it in favour of Healing Magic, but unlike him she could actually remember the names of the Muggle objects.  
  
"What's a telephone?" He asked.  
  
"It's an object Muggle's use to contact each other." She explained, "Each one has it's own special number, and using a pad which has all the numbers on it, they dial in the numbers of their friends and talk to them through a handle thing."  
  
"Well, should I tell them I don't have a fellytone?" He asked.  
  
"Nah, they'll probably just think that a lie you're using to turn them down." Ginny said, "You'd be better off apologising and saying that you already have a girlfriend."  
  
"But I don't." Draco told her.  
  
"I thought you were going out with Pansy Parkinson." As she said this something green and red caught her eyes. Someone was putting up tinsel in the window of their shop. She hadn't realised it, but it was nearing Christmas.  
  
"Not really, She likes to think we are, but there's something off-putting about a girl who wouldn't look at you twice if you weren't rich. Besides," He shrugged, "She's not exactly good-looking, is she?"  
  
"Is looks all you're interested in?" Ginny asked.  
  
"Well, yeah, it'd be nice if whoever it was were a bit interesting, but it's not a necessity. And smart girls aren't attractive." He told her.  
  
"You're such a bastard." She muttered, but he ignored her.  
  
"What about you?" He asked after a moments pause, "You're supposed to be going out with the Muggle Born idiot Thomas, aren't you? But that didn't stop you flirting with Lynch."  
  
"I..." She looked horrified, and closed her eyes, "Dean thinks I'm dead, he's thought I was dead for a couple of months now, he probably has a new girlfriend by now. And it's not like I kissed Aidan, I really didn't expect him to kiss me."  
  
"Didn't push him away though, did you?" Draco pointed out.  
  
"I didn't have time, it was so quick!" Ginny exclaimed, "I would of, I really would. It's not cheating on someone if you don't kiss back. And anyway, like I said before, it'd be unfair on Dean if after all this time I barge back into his life and demand that I become part of it again."  
  
"I don't know, he looked pretty upset when he found out you were dead." He told her, "Cried during the speech Dumbledore made and everything. Loads of people cried actually. Did you know that you and Libby Starling from Ravenclaw were best friends?"  
  
"What? We barely talked!"  
  
"Well, according to her, you two were inseparable, and she didn't know how she'd go on living without you. Had quite a group around her, all telling her how brave and strong she was." He was grinning slightly, and Ginny felt the urge to punch him.  
  
"I can't believe people used my death to boost their own popularity, that's just low." She said.  
  
"Lots of people were upset though." He told her seriously, "Specially your brother and Potter and Granger, Thomas and Finnigan too. They lost you and Longbottom."  
  
Ginny felt tears well up in her eyes as she thought about Neville. He was sweet and kind, but also strong and brave and hardworking. She had always felt bad about not liking him the way he liked her, and had hoped that he'd find someone who realised how special he was. Now he never would.  
  
"Er, Weasley, your sandwich." Draco's voice brought her back from her thoughts, and she looked down to find the cream cheese had splattered all over her trousers.  
  
"Damn it!" She muttered, wiping it up with a napkin and wishing all these Muggles weren't around so she could use her wand instead.  
  
"Uh, sorry about bringing up Longbottom." Draco said, looking sheepish, "Forgot he was your friend too."  
  
"It's ok." She told him, "I just feel bad that I survived when all the other students who were in there died."  
  
"Don't be stupid, it's not like it was your Father who went and killed them all." He snapped, looking irritated.  
  
"And it's not like you're responsible for what your dad did." She reminded him, "So let's stop blaming ourselves. We're having a day off; we can start worrying again tomorrow. Today we eat cream cheese and salmon and watch you get stuck trying to find the handle on an automatic door."  
  
"How was I supposed to know they opened by themselves?"  
  
***  
  
Harry hurried to the library, he was ten minutes late, his meeting with Blaise had taken him longer than expected. Unfortunately, he had gained nothing from the meeting other than knowing that Blaise was probably going to dump him as soon as soon as Malfoy returned.  
  
"Harry." A voice hissed, "Over here!"  
  
He walked over to the corner where his two friends sat, surrounded by a pile of books.  
  
"How did it go?" Ron asked.  
  
"Not well." He admitted, "She said she'd try, but that she couldn't do much. She also cried."  
  
"What is it about you that makes people cry?" The red haired boy asked curiously.  
  
"Shut up Ron." Hermione hissed, "I'm sure Harry wasn't the reason Blaise cried, was she Harry?"  
  
"No, it was Malfoy." He said bitterly, "Why do I always choose girls who'd rather be with other boys?"  
  
"Well, if she'd rather be with Malfoy then she's obviously very foolish, as he'd probably just hurt her more than she's hurt already." Hermione told him, "But she said she'd try to find out more about Lucius? Well, that's a start."  
  
"What if she can't find anything?" Ron asked.  
  
"We're going to have to do a lot of research by ourselves." She said, "Harry, I suggest you continue to work with Blaise, try to get her to understand that she can trust us, and that we need her. I'm going to get my hand on some old Daily Prophets, see if I can find out anything about Lucius. Ron, can you ask your dad if he knows anything? He'll help us, and I'm sure he knows lots of things about Lucius Malfoy that Lucius would rather people didn't know."  
  
"You spent all night thinking that up, didn't you." Ron accused her; "You couldn't have come up with that plan just now."  
  
"It's called thinking on your feet." She said in an exasperated voice.  
  
"I still don't think you came up with that right now." But Hermione ignored him, turning back to her books.  
  
***  
  
Darkness had fallen hours ago, but neither Ginny nor Draco really felt like ending their day. The night was cold, but the sky was clear and filled with stars and they were both in a good mood.  
  
"And then the Troll said to the Goblin, 'that's not a rock, that's my wife!'" They both laughed, not because the joke was particularly funny, but because it was so bad.  
  
"Where did you hear that one?" Ginny asked.  
  
"Goyle. I think he made it up himself." Draco told her.  
  
"Ok, here's one." She coughed to clear her throat, and began, "A Wizard walked into a pub, and he heard a piano playing. He walked up to bar, and saw a tiny piano player, playing on a tiny piano. He turned to the barman and said 'how did you get that tiny piano player?' and the barman replied 'I have a magical Genie, do you want to have a go?' the wizard agreed, and the barman took out the Genie, giving the man one warning: 'speak clearly, he has bad hearing'. So the wizard said 'I wish I had a pile of gold', but instead he got a pile of coal. When he complained the barman replied 'I told you he had bad hearing, do you really think I wished for a fourteen inch Pianist?'"  
  
Draco almost fell to the floor laughing, muttering to himself "Fourteen inch pianist!"  
  
"Fred told me that one, but mum overheard and clobbered him over the head with a broomstick." Ginny told him, grinning.  
  
"I have to remember that one." He said, "Fourteen inch pianist, bloody hell, that's funny. Most the jokes in Slytherin are about Muggles, lots of 'how many Muggles does it take to change a gas lamp' and things like that. It can get very boring."  
  
"Most of the jokes in Gryffindor are about Slytherins." She admitted, "And they're not very funny either. There's only so many times you can listen to 'and then the Slytherin tripped over his own broom'. In fact, once is once too many."  
  
"Well, may I just say that I've never tripped over my own broom." Draco said.  
  
"You may." She grinned, "So, where are we going to stay tonight? Do you think you could brave a Muggle Hotel?"  
  
"A Muggle hotel? How do they work?" He asked.  
  
"Pretty much the same as Wizarding Hotels, but without the magic." She explained.  
  
"How does the room service work?"  
  
"Well...I don't know actually. I guess we could just do without." Ginny suggested, but Draco looked horrified.  
  
"Do without? I'm a Malfoy, we don't do without." He told her, "We do with, we do with a lot."  
  
"Well, at the moment you're a Bowcott, and you're going to have to do without, because I really don't think we should return to the Wizarding World just yet." She snapped, "Look, this can be fun, it can be an 'experience', or it could be bloody torture. That's up to you. Personally, I think we should rent a Muggle Hotel, at least no Muggles are searching for us."  
  
"What if we make some major mistake?" He asked, "I really don't like the idea of being burnt at the stake."  
  
"Malfoy, do you know anything about Muggles?" That's was actually a pretty stupid question, of course he didn't, "Look, Muggles haven't burnt witches in a very long time. Nowadays they're loads of Muggles going around claiming to be witches and to have magical powers. They go round saying things like 'I worship the goddess and can bend the weather to my will'. No one burns them. We can just pretend to be eccentric new age worshippers."  
  
"So Muggles accept witches?" Draco asked sceptically.  
  
"Well, most of them think that they're fakers, and most of them are." Ginny admitted, "Although I suppose some of them may be Muggle Borns who don't have enough magic to get into a wizarding school. They can float a pencil and they think they're the most powerful force in the universe."  
  
"I refuse to pretend I'm some sort of weak Mudblood." He snapped.  
  
"Don't use that word." She hissed, "That's so...horrible. We're pretending to be Muggles, just follow my lead and don't curse anyone, or I will kill you."  
  
They found a lot of pubs but, to their astonishment, none of them seemed to rent rooms. It seemed that tradition had died out long ago in this part of London. One Pub owner eventually took pity on them and directed them to a hotel, which they got lost on the way too.  
  
When they finally arrived they were tired and hungry, the baguettes they had eaten for lunch long forgotten. They checked in, and Draco found a bar that they could order dinner from. When they finished they retired up to their room, which turned out to be little more than a box with two beds in it. Draco sneered with disgust, but Ginny didn't mind at all, as it was only a little smaller than her room back home, although nowhere near as cosy.  
  
The one think in the room that Draco approved of was the window. One wall was made entirely of glass, and when you stood by it you could see the entire of London, with a huge amount of sky above it. Of course the lights meant that most the stars were invisible, but it was still a beautiful sight.  
  
"When I leave Hogwarts." Ginny told him, standing by the window and looking out, "I'm going to live in Muggle London for a year, and get a job. I'll still use magic when I need to, but I want to be able to live independently from it. I'll make friends with Muggles, and learn about the way they live their lives, it'll be really exciting."  
  
"Sounds boring to me." Draco yawned, standing beside her, "Muggle's aren't as stupid as I thought, but we're still above them."  
  
But they're so much more modern then us." She pointed out, "Much more technologically advanced." She sounded out the word 'technologically' very slowly, like someone who was using a word they only vaguely understood.  
  
"How?" Draco asked. Ginny scanned the city, thinking that that itself was proof enough, but then the big silver orb in the sky caught her eye, and she smiled.  
  
"They've been to the moon." She told him. There was a big pause where he looked at her in amazement.  
  
"You're lying." He said after the pause passed.  
  
"I'm not." She said, offended.  
  
"They haven't been to the moon." He insisted.  
  
"Yes they have!"  
  
"What? The moon?"  
  
"Yes Malfoy, the moon."  
  
"But...how did they get up there?" He asked, astounded.  
  
"They used a sort of flying boat, a really big rocket." She explained.  
  
"To get to the moon?"  
  
"Yes Malfoy, the moon." She said again.  
  
"But...they haven't!"  
  
"Yes Malfoy, they have." She insisted.  
  
"But why? There's nothing up there!"  
  
"They wanted to study it or something." Ginny said, her knowledge on the matter not being much more than Draco's.  
  
"But...they haven't!"  
  
"Goodnight Malfoy." She said, climbing into bed, leaving him staring up at the moon in amazement.  
  
***  
  
When Ginny awoke the next day she found Draco up and ready to leave. She quickly changed into some clean clothes in the bathroom and tried her best to wash a bit. What she really wanted was a nice long bath, but that was impossible here, as the bath had already been claimed by things that weren't supposed to be alive and yet where. When she returned Draco was sitting on the bed, looking out the big window and the city, which looked much less beautiful during the day.  
  
"You ready?" She asked.  
  
"Weasley, you don't hate me, do you?" He asked, taking Ginny by surprise.  
  
"No, of course I don't hate you." She replied.  
  
"You're brother does, and so does Potter and Granger." He said, sounding miserable.  
  
"Malfoy, you don't want them to like you, if you did you wouldn't have been so horrible to them all this time." She reminded him.  
  
"So are you saying it's my fault that they hate me?" He asked.  
  
"Yes." She answered, "Why are you asking me this?"  
  
"I don't know." He shook his head and stood up, "All this running around is making me depressed. I wish we could go back to Hogwarts but..."  
  
"But I'd be sentenced to the Dementors kiss, and you'd be given back to your father, who'd do god knows what to you." Ginny finished his sentence, "Malfoy, I don't hate you. I think I may even be starting to get along with you, so please, cheer up."  
  
He smiled weakly, but Ginny was encouraged. This meant that he cared about her opinion, which meant that he was becoming less of an arrogant git. Of course she knew that she was unlikely to ever hear him say that he was starting to like her, but she could tell.  
  
"Besides," She reminded him, "You don't care what Ron, Harry and Hermione think of you, Ron's a blood traitor, Harry's an idiotic attention seeker and Hermione is a filthy mudblood, isn't that right?"  
  
"Are you making fun of me in some strange way that I can't detect?" He asked sarcastically.  
  
"Yes." She replied, and they both laughed.  
  
HOW AMUSING. A voice said. Ginny looked at Draco, but he was picking up his bag, and didn't seem to have heard.  
  
"Malfoy, did you just say something?" She asked, a chill running up her spine.  
  
"Hm? No." He replied.  
  
IT WASN'T HIM. The voice said.  
  
"Malfoy." She whispered, fear filling her stomach. He looked up at her, questioning.  
  
HE CAN'T HEAR ME. The voice said.  
  
"Malfoy, there's something in here with us." She whispered.  
  
NOT IN HERE VIRGINIA. The voice was ringing with laughter.  
  
"What is it?" Draco asked.  
  
NO, NOT IN HERE, IN YOU!  
  
"Tom." And the laughter filled her head.  
  
***  
  
Review!  
  
A.N. Still looking for people who wanna do some fanart.  
  
Thanks to:  
  
MelissaAdams: Updating as requested  
  
Ohepelss Oramtnci: No, Rufina really isn't. She should get some tips from Harry!  
  
SilverDragonsFlame: Updated as requested  
  
Cherryblossoms: That was a really helpful review, thanks! It's good to know what people like and dislike. 


	13. To Ginny And Neville

Disclaimer: the characters and settings in this story do not belong to me, they belong to J.K.Rowling. I am not making any money out of this story, and no copyright infringement is intended. Aren't I official?  
  
Dedicated to my beta Dom  
  
*** To Ginny And Neville ***  
  
Ginny was sitting on the bed crying when Draco returned. He carried with him a glass of water and a cold flannel.  
  
"Lie down." He ordered, and she obeyed. Since she had first heard Tom's voice in her head, Ginny's temperature had soared, and none of the healing spells she knew would lower it. In the end they had had to resort to Muggle methods, "Put this on your forehead."  
  
"He won't stop talking." She whispered, obeying, "Before, at least I knew I could get away, but now he's in control, and he won't stop talking."  
  
"What's he saying?" Draco asked.  
  
"He's using my thoughts against me." She told him, "He can see all of them, and he's replaying every unkind thought I've ever had, every moment of weakness. He's trying to drive me insane, make my mind weak so he can take over."  
  
"Can he hear me?" He asked. She closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again, nodding, "Ok Tom, this is the deal. If you don't stop, I'll kill Weasley thereby killing you in the process."  
  
"He doesn't believe you." Ginny said, fear in her voice. But when Draco looked at her, he knew that she didn't believe him either. But that was because she thought that deep down he was a good person. She could go on believing that, but Tom wasn't so innocent, wasn't innocent at all, it wouldn't take much to convince him.  
  
"Can he see what you see?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then look into my eyes." She did as she was told. Instead of looking at her eyes, he tried to look within them, trying to find some sign of Tom. Doubt flickered over Ginny's face when she saw his expression, "You can see me Tom? I will kill Weasley if it means stopping you. All she has to do is show the slightest sign of weakening, and I'll kill her." His eyes unfocused, and now he was looking at Ginny, "What's he saying?"  
  
"He says that he likes you." She paused, and then continued, "And that it's a shame that he'll have to kill you. But also that he believes you and that he'll stop."  
  
"What a good obedient child." He said darkly, "Come on Weasley, we should go."  
  
"Malfoy...?" he knew what was coming next, and cut her off.  
  
"Yes Weasley, believe it." He told her, "If it came down to letting him out and killing you, I know what I'd have to do." She met his eyes, but he didn't see any hatred or fear or distress in them. He saw understanding.  
  
"That's good to know."  
  
***  
  
Once Tom had stopped shouting at her, Ginny's temperature had gone down. She wished that she could wash, but the bath was in no way fit for use. She convinced Draco to allow her five minutes in the bathroom, where using the flannel she scrubbed her face, hands and arms. She stared into the grotty mirror, and felt a great sadness fall over her. She was beginning to hate her reflection, hate seeing a stranger look back at her.  
  
"You ready?" Draco called impatiently.  
  
"Yeah." She muttered, coming out. He was waiting by the door, and passed Ginny her bag before walking out. She followed silently.  
  
WELL, DON'T YOU TWO GET ALONG WELL? Tom asked, his voice filled malicious glee.  
  
"We get on fine, thank you very much." She whispered, her voice brittle.  
  
"What was that?" Draco asked ahead of her.  
  
"Oh, I was talking to Tom." Ginny explained, "I'll talk quieter."  
  
"Try not to move your lips." He advised, "So people don't think your crazy. Then again, maybe you are. Why else would you want to talk to him?"  
  
YES VIRGINIA, WHY ELSE WOULD YOU WANT TO TALK TO ME? Tom asked.  
  
"You damn well know why." She whispered, gritting her teeth.  
  
YES, BECAUSE YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH ME. He voice was kind, a mask for his true feelings, I'M QUITE SURE JUST A FEW DAYS AGO YOU INSISTED THAT YOU WERE NOT IN LOVE WITH ME, THAT YOU HAD GOT OVER ME YEARS AGO.  
  
"I was wrong, I'll probably never get over you." She told him, "But just because I couldn't kill you, doesn't mean I wont find another way to get you out of my head. I can't kill you, but Malfoy can."  
  
HE'LL KILL YOU TO DESTROY ME. Tom reminded her, AND THIS IS THE BOY YOU CHOOSE TO PROTECT YOU. WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE GREAT HARRY POTTER?  
  
"Well, Harry didn't rescue me from Lucius Malfoy; Malfoy did, so I'm not complaining." She told him, "How did you get this powerful Tom? How comes you can talk to me now? While I'm in the real world I mean."  
  
AFTER YOU TRIED TO... GET RID OF ME... I DECIDED THAT IT WAS OF GREATER URGENCY THAT I GAIN POWER OVER YOU. He told her, SO I TRIED TO FORCE MY WAY OUT, AND ENDED UP HERE. WELL, I FEEL MUCH MORE INVOLVED NOW.  
  
"Well bully for you." Ginny mumbled to herself, and Draco smiled back at her.  
  
ARROGANT CHILD, ISN'T HE? Tom noted, but Ginny ignored him.  
  
***  
  
At breakfast neither Harry nor Ron ate much. They were about to play their first Quidditch match of the season, and it was against Slytherin. The Slytherin captain, Montague, had replaced Draco with a small rodent faced boy, and as the first game of the season had been between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, no one knew if he was any good except the Slytherins.  
  
"Hello." Came the dreamy voice of Luna Lovegood from behind them, "I've come to wish you good luck."  
  
"Um, thanks." Harry said uncertainly, grateful that she wasn't wearing the lion hat.  
  
"How are the two new Chasers?" She asked, referring to Seamus Finnigan, and a third year girl called Mirabel O'Lenner.  
  
"They're good." Ron told her, glancing nervously at Mirabel, who had a habit of dropping the Quaffle when a bludger came too close.  
  
"Well, I do hope you win, you did so well last year, even though you didn't have Harry or your brothers." Luna said, "You're a very good Keeper."  
  
Ron was silent, and Harry felt that it might have been a mistake to mention last years match to him. He had indeed been the hero of the match; but everyone had agreed that Ginny's catching of the Snitch had been spectacular. And Ginny had intended to try out for Chaser this year.  
  
"Well, Quidditch runs in the family." Ron said finally, and Harry smiled, relieved.  
  
"Come on team, time to get changed." Katie Bell said finally. She was the team captain this year, and although she was just as strict as Oliver and Angelina had been, she was much less aggressive.  
  
They changed into their Quidditch robes in silence; all wandering what the match would be like. They then waited patiently for their names to be called out. This year's announcer was Justin Finch-Fletchley, who seemed to take the role much more seriously then Lee ever had. As they flew on, his voice sounded over the pitch.  
  
"And we have Bell, Finnigan, O'Lenner, Kirke, Sloper, Weasley and Potter!" He shouted, as the seven-team members flew onto the pitch. The landed in the middle, just in time to see the Slytherin players fly on. Katie shook hands with Montegue, and Harry saw her wince as he squeezed her fingers tightly.  
  
"And they're off!" Shouted Justin, as the players took to the sky. Harry immediately flew as high as possible, in order to get a good look of the field, "And Bell has the Quaffle, passes to Finnigan, who passes back to Bell, look at them go! Bell passes to O'Lenner...who drops the Quaffle. That was some very good work by Beater Crabbe. So Pucey has the Quaffle, passes to Warington-"  
  
Ron saved a goal, and Harry did a little victory loop, beaming down at his best friend, who was looking very proud. He then quickly glanced over at the Slytherin seeker, whose name was Falkner Clay. Clay was circling the pitch very slowly, his rodent-like eyes twitching from side to side, trying to spot the snitch.  
  
Not while I'm alive, Harry thought to himself, and did a quick sweep of the pitch, looking for the glint of gold.  
  
"And Finnigan scores!" Justin shouted, "Making the score ten-nil to Gryffindor! Now Warrington has the Quaffle and-"  
  
Harry tuned out again, still searching for the snitch. Clay was moving closer and closer to him, undoubtedly in the belief that if it came down to race between them he'd win. Harry glanced at his broomstick, and almost fell off his own. A Firebolt 2000! He hadn't even realised they'd been released yet. Could he win if they raced?  
  
And then he saw it, a tiny glint of gold right next to Ron's ankle. But would he get there first? Breathing deeply he firmly grasped his brooms handle, pulled it up, and turned around in the opposite direction, towards the Slytherin post. Clay took only a moment to do the same, and Harry let him take the lead, knowing that he wouldn't see Harry turn back around. He was nearing the post when he heard Clay swear, and knew that the younger boy would be right on his tail. Ron looked surprised when he saw the two seekers rushing towards him, but then looked down, and also saw the snitch. Harry saw him shout something, and was vaguely aware of Clay giving a small noise, that sounded slightly like 'omph'. But he knew not to turn around and check, instead holding out his arm and grabbing the snitch.  
  
"And Potter's caught the Golden Snitch!" Justin's voice called, and there was a chorus of cheers, "Gryffindor wins, one hundred and sixty to zero! Sorry Slytherin, you just aren't up to scratch this year!"  
  
When Harry finally looked over at Clay, he saw the boy was nursing a heavy nosebleed, where he had obviously been hit by a bludger. He landed next to Ron, who was grinning.  
  
"That little twat was about top grab hold of the end of your broom!" He told harry, "So I shouted for Sloper to send a bludger his way. Did you see me save that goal against Warington? He was so pissed off."  
  
"Yeah, you did a good job." Harry told him, pleased that Ron finally believed in himself.  
  
"But the way you tricked Clay into going the other way? That was great!" Ron grinned, but Harry was unable to make any response, as the rest of the Quidditch team had landed, and they were all congratulating each other.  
  
"Great goal." He told Seamus, who reddened. Mirabel, on the other hand, looked miserable.  
  
"What's up?" he asked her.  
  
"I can't believe I dropped the Quaffle." She said, looking at her feet, "I don't know why the bludger's scare me so much. I don't think I'm cut out to be on the team."  
  
Katie had overheard, and was coming to comfort Mirabel, "You did great." Harry heard as they walked away. Ron, who was standing next to Harry, watched them go, and sighed, shaking his head.  
  
"It should have been Ginny out there today, not Mirabel." He said quietly, "I'm not saying Mirabel's rubbish or anything, it just...it just should have been Ginny."  
  
"Yeah." Harry agreed, and found that he needed to close his eyes to keep back the tears. But a moment later Hermione was bounding over to them, hugging Harry and kissing Ron, and both boys smiled.  
  
***  
  
WHERE ARE WE GOING? Tom asked.  
  
"France, I think." Ginny murmured, bowing her head. They were walking towards Covent Garden Floo extension, through Muggle London.  
  
AND WHY?  
  
"To see some centaurs. Surely you know this Tom, you can see inside my mind."  
  
OF COURSE I DO, BUT IF I ACT LIKE I DO, DON'T YOU THINK THAT IT MIGHT MAKE CONVERSATION A LITTLE CONSTRICTED? He asked, and Ginny felt herself sigh slightly, out of frustration.  
  
"I can't believe the men in my life." She muttered, "Harry never noticed me, Michael liked me just fine unless I was showing any talent, Dean thinks I'm dead, Malfoy is only helping me so that he won't be taken back to his father, and you'll kill me first chance you get. Life is so unfair."  
  
OH MY DEAR VIRGINIA, LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE. He told her, AT LEAST YOU HAVE A BODY.  
  
"Which I have to share with a murderer."  
  
WHOM YOU LOVE  
  
"Don't remind me." She muttered angrily, "My insanity knows no bounds."  
  
"What are you and his Royal Pain talking about?" Draco asked her. They were almost at the Covent Garden Floo extension now, and he looked eager to go. He had enjoyed Muggle London, but had no intention of staying longer than he had to.  
  
"Boys." Ginny told him.  
  
"Will you be curling each other's hair next?" Draco smirked.  
  
"Tom doesn't have hair, and my hair doesn't need any help curling." She laughed, and he couldn't resist a smile.  
  
"You ever been to France?" Draco asked.  
  
"No, I've only ever been to Egypt, and that was to visit Bill." Ginny admitted, "But Hermione has, and she told me that it's really nice."  
  
"I suppose that she's only been to Muggle France, not Wizarding France." Draco sneered, "So any information she's given you won't be very useful."  
  
"I still have the transophones, and Mum taught us all a bit of French and Spanish." She snapped, "So don't get all high and mighty."  
  
"French Witches and Wizards are very...touchy about some subjects." Draco told her.  
  
"Well, when I said I know a bit of French, I meant I can say who I am, and where I come from, so I won't really be able to offend anyone." Ginny conceded.  
  
"Yeah, I'm actually more worried about someone offending you." He said, frowning.  
  
"How so?" Ginny asked slowly.  
  
"French Wizards don't...like...Muggles." Draco told her, "And you get angry easily, so I thought I should warn you."  
  
"Don't like Muggles how?"  
  
"Well, about seven years ago, the French Minister passed a law saying that Magical people can't marry Muggles."  
  
"He what!" Ginny shouted, feeling her face go red.  
  
"Well, obviously some of our kind still married Muggles, but they had restrictions." Draco explained.  
  
"What kind of restrictions?" She asked; sounding more and more disgusted.  
  
"Well, they can't tell their husband or wife that they're magical, and they have to leave the magical world." He told her, "They're only allowed to do magic in emergencies."  
  
"What!" Her moth hung open, eyes wide, "What about their children?"  
  
"They don't get told either, they're just raised as Muggles." He shrugged "Muggle Borns aren't taught magic either."  
  
"Isn't that dangerous? All these magical people walking around without any idea of how to control their powers?" Ginny asked.  
  
"Tabs are kept on them, and any unintentional magic is dealt with by the French Ministry." Draco told her.  
  
"What I don't understand is this, why didn't You-Know-Who try and gain power over there?"  
  
"The French have already found a solution for the 'Muggle Problem', they don't need anything else." He explained, "Besides, the French may think the Muggles are below them, but they're very peaceful, they wouldn't like You- Know-Who's violent way of doing things."  
  
"So they agree with his ideals, but not his methods." She said bitterly, "That's not any better."  
  
"I just thought I should warn you, they're not very nice about Muggles." Draco told her, looking troubled.  
  
"And what about you?" She asked, "What do you think about Muggles and You- Know-Who?"  
  
"You-Know-Who is a mad man and a fool, someone who I have no intention of serving under." His voice was filled with malice.  
  
"But what do you think on his take on Muggles?" Ginny sounded half-fearful, half-angry.  
  
"I...You know I don't like Muggles." He said finally, "I don't think they're as far below us as before, but I still think they're slow and stupid and barbaric."  
  
"Some Muggles think they're better than others because if a difference in skin colour or religion." She told him, "And that's barbaric. But it's no different than us thinking we're better than they are because we can do magic and they can't. We're the barbarians, because while they've made such behaviour illegal, we've made it a symbol of a high standing society. While they work to create a world where everyone is equal, our kind treats Purebloods with old money as the elite, and Muggle Borns and Half Bloods with no money as scum. It's us who are slow and stupid and barbaric."  
  
Draco could say nothing to this, although Ginny knew he wasn't convinced. They walked the rest of that way in silence or at least in silence for Draco.  
  
WASN'T THAT A ROUSING SPEECH? Tom said snidely. Ginny ignored him, but he continued anyway, SO, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU AND YOUNG DRACO AREN'T AS PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER AS YOU WOULD HAVE ME BELIEVE. IT IS YOUR FOOLISHNESS THAT PREVENTS YOU FROM BEING SUCH AN ADORABLE COUPLE.  
  
Ginny said nothing, although she thought to herself that had no intention of being a 'couple' with Malfoy.  
  
WHY ON EARTH NOT? Tom asked, and her mouth formed a small 'o' of surprise, OH VIRGINIA, DID YOU NOT REALISE THAT THERE WAS NO NEED FOR YOUR MUTTERING, THAT I COULD HEAR YOUR THOUGHT'S JUST FINE?  
  
'Why didn't you say so then?' She thought to him.  
  
BECAUSE IT AMUSED ME TO SEE YOU TALKING TO YOURSELF. He told her.  
  
'How lovely of you.' She thought bitterly, 'And here I was feeling bad about trying to kill you.'  
  
MY DARLING GINNY, YOU WILL NEVER KILL ME, YOU WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO LIVE WITH YOURSELF. But before she could respond Draco turned to her.  
  
"Are we there yet?" He asked. Ginny looked around quickly, to get her bearings, and then pointed to the Covent Garden Floo extension, which she could just see five minutes up the road. Tom didn't say another word, and they paid the assistant and flooed to the Diagon Alley Floo Hub.  
  
***  
  
Harry, Ron and Hermione sat around the common room fire, chatting happily. It had been a short game, but it had lifted everyone's spirits, and everyone hoped that it was a sign of what was to come.  
  
"Hey, Harry, Ron!" Came a cheerful shout with a lilting accent, "Can we sit with you? We have Butterbeer!"  
  
It was Seamus, followed by Dean. Seamus was grinning broadly, obviously still pleased at being the only chaser to score during the whole game.  
  
"Sure, pull up a seat." Ron said, pulling his own seat over to make more room. Hermione offered her chair to Dean, choosing instead to sit on Ron's lap. The tall boy grinned, and his face blushed a red that almost matched his hair. Seamus handed out the bottles he was holding, and everyone took a swig.  
  
"That was a good first game." The Irish boy said when he was seated, and Harry and Ron let out a big 'here, here'.  
  
"How's Mirabel?" Harry asked, thinking of how miserable she had looked.  
  
"She's fine." Seamus told them, "Katie was telling her how terrible she was when she started on the team, that seemed to cheer her up loads. She didn't do too badly, she just got spooked."  
  
"Yeah, seeing Crabbe's face will do that to you." Ron agreed, and Harry choked on his Butterbeer.  
  
"Well, you were very good." Hermione told Ron, and blushed again, "I don't enjoy Quidditch as much as you all do, but that was very good, the way you saved that goal. Montegue looked very angry with Warrington."  
  
"And the way Harry tricked that new Seeker!" Seamus added, "Wasn't that good Dean? The way he faked it and then turned around, and how Ron got Sloper to whack him with a Bludger? Wasn't that good Dean?" Dean mumbled something unintelligible, "What was that?"  
  
"I wasn't there." He said quietly.  
  
"You weren't...why not?" The sandy haired boy asked.  
  
"It was just..." Dean shook his head, looking upset.  
  
"Ginny." Ron finished. The black boy nodded, looking relieved that he hadn't needed to say it, "Yeah, I felt it too. She was supposed to be playing, but..."  
  
"It wasn't just Ginny." Hermione said, "I'm so used to watching you play with Neville next to me, and having him explain the different moves to me. He couldn't play very well, but he loved the game so much."  
  
"It's just...too much." Dean agreed.  
  
"Dinah Rosenfield's brother, Aaron, didn't come back to school." Ron told them, "One of the Ravenclaw prefects told me his mother had transferred him to Beauxbatons, so he'd be safer."  
  
"Safest place in the world is here, under Dumbledore." Seamus said, and a small part of Harry wanted to say 'you hadn't always believed that'.  
  
"They should have been there." Ron said, "Ginny, Neville, Dinah, all of them. They should have been there today, playing and cheering. It's not fair."  
  
"Then let's dedicate the game to them." Hermione suggested.  
  
"Yeah, to Ginny and Neville." Ron said.  
  
"To Ginny and Neville." They all chorused.  
  
***  
  
"Do you wonder what our friends are doing now?" Ginny asked, as they walked over to a Floo assistant.  
  
"Crabbe and Goyle? Probably walking around in circles." He smirked, "Honestly, without my guidance, there isn't much else they can do."  
  
"I don't want Ron to be miserable." Ginny told him, "But I'd like to think that he's thinking about me. Who do you want to be thinking about you?"  
  
"Everyone's probably thinking about me." Draco told her, "You died months ago, I've only been missing for a week or so. Who do you think is more important?"  
  
"They probably all think you got sick of having a psycho for a father and did a runner." She snapped, "It's my birthday next month, do you think there's a chance we'll be back by then?"  
  
"Well, if we can get the centaurs to help us, we might be." He frowned slightly, "So, you're birthdays in December. Do your parents get you a joint Christmas and Birthday present? To save money?"  
  
"No they do not!" She exclaimed, offended, "Do you know what? I thought you might be alright deep down, I've changed my mind."  
  
"Ah come on Weasley, you can't give up on me that easily." He grinned, "I thought you were trying to redeem me."  
  
"What gave you that impression?" She asked coldly.  
  
"Well, you've been encouraging me to be a better person." Draco pointed out.  
  
"And failing." Ginny added.  
  
"We were getting on yesterday."  
  
"You weren't insulting my family yesterday."  
  
"Look, I...I...I don't want you to give up on me." He admitted, looking embarrassed, "I like it when we get along. And I'm s-sorry for insulting your family. It's just habit."  
  
"I can't believe you stuttered when saying sorry." Ginny said with a grin, "You literally find it difficult to say the word. That's pitiful."  
  
"I'm not used to it!" he exclaimed.  
  
"Well, at least you're making the effort. So you're forgiven." She looked around. "Um, where are we going?"  
  
"This way." He pointed, and they walked over to the grate. They paid the assistant, and walked through the fire, arriving in France.  
  
***  
  
A.N.: Still searching for anyone interested in doing any fanart for this story. E-mail me if you're interested.  
  
A.N.2: If you wanna read a humour fic, and don't mind some mild slash, check out one of my other stories, 'What's your childhood trauma'. I have a pitiful amount of reviews for it.  
  
Thank you to:  
  
Reven Eid: Hm, I actually found the bit about the moon more funny, the automatic doors was just a random whim  
  
UntitledN'stayinthatway: Um, thanks! Especially appreciative of the words 'rocks' and 'ass'  
  
Ohepelss Oramtnci: Tom: No *baps back* Tom! Apologise to the nice reviewer right now! Tom: No *baps Ducky* Oh.  
  
MelissaAdams: I had to do so many re writes in order to get Draco into character, I hate it when he's all nice and sweet and muggle loving  
  
Keep on reviewing! 


	14. Elves And Shoeboxes

Disclaimer: Not mine  
  
Dedications: To my Beta Reader Dom  
  
Sorry for the complete lack of updating, I've been ill. I still am ill! I love not being at school....  
  
*** Elves And Shoeboxes ***  
  
Ginny opened her eyes slowly, blinking because of the light. She was vaguely aware of an earthy smell, and something very heavy across her body. Also, someone was singing.  
  
Wait, was that singing? There were a number of voices, and although it sounded like singing, it was constructed like a conversation.  
  
How did I get here? Ginny thought to herself, and where's Malfoy?  
  
They had been in France, and had been travelling for well over a week, trying to get to the Valley to find the Centaurs. But when they had arrived, something went wrong.  
  
Those bloody centaurs attacked me! A strange mix of anger and astonishment filled her, and a small-strangled noise escaped her throat. The singing/talking stopped suddenly, and she could hear some shuffling. Suddenly a face appeared above her, and Ginny had to stop herself from screaming.  
  
The face was a pale earthy green, and was surrounded by a mane of forest green, bushy matted hair. Ginny tried to struggle away, but the creature's strong arms held her down.  
  
"Be calm." It pleaded; it's hazel green eyes wide with concern, "Be calm. No harm here, all good."  
  
"What are you?" Ginny whispered. She stopped struggling, but was very much aware that, although it looked harmless, it could be deceiving her.  
  
"We Tree People." It told her, "Elves."  
  
"Can I sit up?" She asked.  
  
"Yes, but careful, injured." It was right. As soon as she sat up, she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, and she saw that it was bandaged. The elf, if that's what it really was, looked concerned, and helped her get comfortable.  
  
Once sitting up, Ginny could see that she was in a hut, with an earth floor, which explained the smell. The weight she had felt on top of her was due to a severely heavy blanket that looked as though it was made of moss. She also noticed that she was back in her own body, her long red hair spilled over her shoulders, and she fingered it lovingly. Next to her sat the elf.  
  
She had seen pictures of what elves were supposed to look like in children's books, and it wasn't like this.  
  
The elf was very tall, looking about seven-foot, and its skin, hair, and eyes were various shades of green. Even its clothes were made out of the same moss-like material that made up her blanket. Its limbs were very long, and long, twig like fingers came out from its hands. Its long face was mainly taken up by its huge green eyes, and its nose and mouth were tiny. But despite its startling appearance, its face was kind and soft, and its eyes sparkled with innocence.  
  
"What happened?" Ginny asked eventually, after she realised that she's been staring.  
  
"You saw centaurs, stupid centaurs." It explained, "Saw beast within you, no see goodness in heart. Attack, but elves come, fight them away. Found you and your winne. You injured, we heal."  
  
"My winne?" Her voice was filled with confusion.  
  
"Yes, your winne." Ginny still looked bewildered, and it closed its eyes, trying to think of something, "Winne." It explained, "Boy winne."  
  
Something stirred in Ginny's memory, a whisper of a conversation, or maybe someone telling her something. The Old English word for friend was winne.  
  
"You mean friend!" Ginny smiled and the elf looked embarrassed.  
  
"Yes, friend." It shrugged elegantly, "I forget. Human English hard for me. New Human English hard. Old English we know, we speak. Old French too, not new."  
  
"Where is my friend?" She asked.  
  
"Friend good, friend with others. He eat, he sleep, he talk, he happy." It reassured her, "He ask for you many times."  
  
"How long have we been here?" Understanding the elf talk was not difficult, but it was slow.  
  
"Four times the sun sets before you wake." It replied, and Ginny blanched.  
  
"Four days?" She shook her head, "That's not good. Can I see my friend? My winne?"  
  
"He waits, but you not move. He come, you stay." It said firmly, and stood to walk away. It was a beautiful sight; the elves long limbs did not swing around like humans, but seemed to flow, like one liquid movement. When it returned, Draco was following, also in his normal body.  
  
"Weasley." He said warmly.  
  
"Hi Malfoy." She replied, "Were you worried?"  
  
"I was for the first day, but these elves are good healers, I broke my ankle and they fixed it in a second." He told her, "You were a bit worse off."  
  
"What happened?" Ginny asked. Her recollections of the event were blurry.  
  
"Well, after we arrived in France we travelled by foot to the Valley-" He began, but she cut him off.  
  
"Yes, I know all of that, I want to know what happened when we saw the Centaurs." She snapped, and then felt guilty. Draco shrugged, looking indifferent.  
  
"They took one look at you and charged us." He explained, "Shouting something about how the beast must die. I guess they meant Riddle. They didn't seem very interested in me, the broken ankle was where the trampled my leg a bit. They did you some harm before the elves came."  
  
"Stupid Centaurs." The elf muttered.  
  
"Weasley, have you met Mapp?" Draco asked, indicating to the elf, "She's the one who's been looking after me."  
  
Ginny replied that, yes, she had met Mapp, but hadn't known her name. She supposed that the elf did look slightly feminine, but she had not seen a male elf with which she could compare.  
  
"You saw the beast inside me too." Ginny said to Mapp, who nodded.  
  
"It is big, too big. Centaurs see it, they think it's you. Elves see beast, but also see person, scared, unhappy, good person. Person with curse. We protect. Friend..." She glanced over and Draco, "...He say you try and destroy beast. Your quest. Elves will help, but only little. We have own quest. War."  
  
"Who are you at war with?" Ginny asked.  
  
"Stupid Centaurs." The elf told her, "They ally with dark wizards. We tell them 'stop', they attack us. War now."  
  
"But why would they attack me if they're fighting on the side of the Death Easters?" The red haired girl asked.  
  
"They're not." Draco explained, "These are French Dark Wizards, a group who are trying to overthrow their Ministry so that they can make Muggle killing legal. They don't know anything about Riddle."  
  
"I can't hear him." Ginny told him, "He hasn't said a word."  
  
"The elves have been giving you a potion to keep him down, he was making you shout things while you were asleep." Draco explained, "It won't last forever though, he'll grow strong enough to overpower it."  
  
"Enough now, she sleeps, talk later." Mapp said suddenly, "Talk with older Tree People after next sun rise."  
  
"Tomorrow." Draco said, standing, "I'll see you tomorrow Weasley."  
  
"Bye Malfoy." She replied, and then Mapp gave her something to drink, and she fell almost instantly asleep.  
  
***  
  
The Quidditch match had been almost two weeks ago, and now seemed like a distant memory to the members of Gryffindor House. Homework was pilling up, and the only person who seemed on top of it was Hermione.  
  
"If you had done it last night then you wouldn't be panicking." She berated Ron at breakfast, who was looking in agony at the scribbled mess that was his Potions homework.  
  
"You didn't seem so keen on me doing it then when you were-" He began, but she glared at him.  
  
"Remember what I said about 'private moment's'?" She asked, and he blushed, "Besides, Harry was out all last night with Blaise, and he got his Potions done, didn't you Harry?"  
  
"I, uh..." Harry trailed off, looking sheepish.  
  
"Oh, you're as bad as each other!" She said shrilly, looking furious, "We have our N.E.W.T's next year, and you're acting like you don't care."  
  
"Calm down." Ron said soothingly, "Just because we're going to fail, doesn't mean you are."  
  
"Oh shut up." She snapped, "I'm not talking to you."  
  
Just then the Post Owls streamed into the Great Hall, and they were distracted from their argument. Soaring towards Ron at a great speed was a grey dust mop. Only it wasn't flying, it was falling, and that's why it was going so fast.  
  
"Errol!" Ron shouted, standing up to catch the poor owl, "We need to stop using you for these long distance flights, it'll be the death of you."  
  
"What's he got?" Harry asked, peering over. The old owl was carrying what looked like an extremely large shoebox. Attached to it was a brown envelope. Ron took it of and scanned it quickly.  
  
"It's from Dad." He explained, and handed the letter over, "He's replied to the letter I sent him about Lucius Malfoy."  
  
Dear Ron, Your mother and I completely forbid you from doing anything that may get you tangled up with Lucius Malfoy. You are not to research anything about him, you are not to talk about him to other people, and you are especially not to look inside the attached shoebox and find all the articles I have collected on him over the last few years. Love Dad P.S. Please look after the articles, I may still need them.  
  
"There are hundreds of them." Hermione whispered, looking inside the box.  
  
"Well done Dad." Ron agreed, peering inside.  
  
"This is going to help us so much." Hermione told them, an excited glint in her eyes.  
  
"I thought you weren't talking to us." Harry reminded her.  
  
"Oh shut up."  
  
***  
  
When Ginny awoke the next day she found that her shoulder was healed, and that she was feeling generally much better. She sat up, and looked around the hut, but no one was there. The bed she had been sleeping on was on the floor, and she had no problem sitting up.  
  
Her head felt so clear, in a way that it hadn't done since Tom had first crept back into her mind. She stretched upwards, feeling her arms and legs complain. She was wearing some of the elves mossy clothes, but beside her bed was her travelling cloak, which she also put on. She then walked over to the door, and out of it.  
  
Outside the sun was blinding and she blinked and winced, shielding her eyes. She considered going back inside, but before she could, a familiar voice called out.  
  
"Ginni winne!" Mapp called. She pronounced Ginny's name strangely, going too high at the end, but she was touched that this magnificent creature considered her a friend.  
  
"Hello Mapp." She greeted.  
  
"Ginni, you should rest." The elf scolded, but she was still smiling.  
  
"I feel much better." Ginny assured her, "I really can't stand anymore bed rest."  
  
"No pain?" Mapp asked, and she shook her head, "If no pain, no need to stay in bed. Want to see Draco wine?"  
  
"Yes, I'd like to see Draco." She nodded, and the two of them started walking. The elf village was large, and was made up of huts made from woven wood. And there were lots of elves. There was little difference between the two sexes. Males were slightly broader and taller, and weren't as graceful as the females, but other than that it was hard to tell, as none of them seemed to have facial hair. And it was impossible to tell with the children. One toddler was wandering over, and Mapp scooped it up, smiling.  
  
"My sister." She said proudly, "Kymry."  
  
"She's lovely." Ginny said, which was true. Once you got used to how different the elves looked to humans, you could appreciate their own beauty, "How old is she? How many years?"  
  
"Thirty." Mapp told her, and Ginny had to stifle a gasp. Could she have heard wrong?  
  
"Thirty years?" She asked.  
  
"Yes, we live long." Mapp said, "But we learn slow. Words hard for us not perfect till we are a hundred. Human words even harder."  
  
"Yours words, I think I heard it before." Ginny said, "It sounded like singing."  
  
"I can speak for you, if you like." The elf suggested, and she agreed. Mapp opened her mouth, and the words came out.  
  
"ïï¡ï¹ï¯ï²ï©ï ï ï³âï¬ï¡ï®ï¡ï ï¦ï·ï¥ï¹ï­ï¬ï ï·ï¨ï¹ï®ï®ï¥ï ï£ï¨âï£ï¨ï ï©ï¬ï¥ï³ï¨ï¿"  
  
The language was beautiful enough, even without the way she said it. Mapp's voice was silky and melodic, and the little elf, Kymry, beamed at her older sister. When she was finished, Ginny's mouth remained open for a moment, before she was able to shut it.  
  
"What did that mean?" She asked finally.  
  
"Greeting for children." Mapp explained, "It means 'hello little one, does the sun shine on you?'. We look after little ones."  
  
Mapp led her to a building, which was much bigger than any of the others, and was not woven, but built out of solid bits of wood. When they entered it became obvious that this was some sort of town hall. One elf, a very old looking male, sat on a chair that was raised slightly off the ground, and many other chairs were facing it, but none of them were taken.  
  
"Draco winne is there." Mapp told her, pointing over to a corner. Draco was sat on the floor, surrounded by a large amount of elves, and he was saying something to them. As they neared, Ginny began to hear what he was saying.  
  
"...and then him and his sidekick jumped me from behind, but I knew they were there, so I just turned around and hexed them." Draco said, gesturing, "But Potter was still up, and threw a curse at me, but I dodged it, and sent another one at him, and..."  
  
"And when was this?" Ginny asked loudly, and Draco's head whipped upwards.  
  
"Oh, um, Weasley, uh, how much did you hear?" he asked, looking sheepish.  
  
"Draco winne as told us many stories of terrible Potter." Mapp volunteered helpfully "Draco winne is very brave and clever. And Potter is very slow and stupid."  
  
"I think Malfoy may have exaggerated a bit." Ginny told Mapp, who looked crestfallen.  
  
"Did Draco winne not do many great brave things?" She asked.  
  
"He..." But Ginny paused, and then smiled at Draco, "He has. He saved me from his father, and has been helping me a lot. But Harry Potter is just as brave and clever as Malfoy."  
  
"I wouldn't say that." Draco grumbled under his breath, but Ginny glared at him, and he lowered his head.  
  
"What was that?" She asked in a false sweet voice.  
  
"Nothing." He said, and Ginny laughed.  
  
"Come Ginni winne." Mapp said, "You must see the Auveray."  
  
"Who's that?" Ginny asked Draco.  
  
"That's the English word for wise elf." Draco told her, "Their leader."  
  
And Mapp took hold of her hand, and pulled her forward, towards the elf who sat in the raised chair.  
  
***  
  
Dumbledore sat in his office, frowning as he read the letter that he had just received. It confirmed many of his suspicions, and did nothing to release his fears. Draco Malfoy was alive and well, and so was his companion, and that was a relief, but they were still in danger, and there was little the old headmaster could do to help them.  
  
With a sigh he stood up and walked over to the perch where Fawkes dozed, and nudged the phoenix gently to wake it. It glared at him for a moment, and ruffled its feathers magnificently.  
  
"Come my friend, no time for that." He said, "I am in need of you aid once again."  
  
Fawkes bobbed its head, and held out one of its legs, but Dumbledore shook his head.  
  
"Not that sort of aid." He told the phoenix, "This is slightly more difficult. I need you to track down Draco Malfoy. It will not be easy, and it will certainly be dangerous, but none of my human operatives seem to be making much headway. He has a mission to fulfil, and he will need your help. Do not return to me until it is complete."  
  
Fawkes bobbed its head one final time, and then disappeared in a flash of light.  
  
"Fortunata." He said, turning to a picture of a plump middle aged woman in a countryside scene, "Please could you tell Severus that he is needed in my office?"  
  
"'Course m'dear." Fortunata said with a broad smile, "Always liked that young Severus, nice boy."  
  
"Yes." Dumbledore agreed, "Now please Fortunata."  
  
"As you say Headmaster." She nodded, and left her frame. Dumbledore went back to his desk, and re-read the letter one last time, before Severus arrived.  
  
Sir, Dragon still loose, Snake is angry. Dragon has vessel, still intact. Vessel still unknown. Consumers were close, but lost Dragon and Vessel, whereabouts are unknown. Dragon will be removed when found; Vessel is not to be harmed. Monkey  
  
Consumers were, of course, Death Eaters, and Monkey was one of Dumbledore's many operatives who had infiltrated Voldemort's ranks. Snake was Voldemort, Dragon was Draco and Vessel was his companion, the individual who all this fuss was about.  
  
A knock came at the door, and Dumbledore beckoned Severus inside. He nodded in greeting, and sat down.  
  
"You wished to see me Headmaster?" he asked.  
  
"I received this." Dumbledore told him, passing him the letter. Severus scanned it quickly, frowning.  
  
"I am sure that asking who Monkey is would have no results." He said when he was finished.  
  
"They have asked me to keep their identity a secret, and I will not betray their trust." The old man's eyes shone solemnly, and Severus nodded.  
  
"Well, at least we know they are alive." He pointed out, "And that whoever the Vessel is, he or she is safe. Do we know who the Vessel is?"  
  
"Only Voldemort does, and whoever he trusts amongst his Death Eaters."  
  
"Very well, do we suspect who the Vessel is?" He tried again. Dumbledore smiled, looking almost mischievous.  
  
"I have my suspicions, yes." He nodded, "But you already know that. So Severus, who else is 'in' on the Vessel project?"  
  
"As far as I know, only Lucius Malfoy, Damien Zabini and Wormtail." The potions master told him, "And possibly Bellatrix Lestrange, she seems to be a part of most the goings on these days. But none of them will discuss it with any of us, other then when they're forcing us to make ridiculous journeys to the North Pole because someone with dark hair was seen there. Of course someone with dark hair was seen there! They all have dark hair!"  
  
"Damien Zabini." Dumbledore muttered, "Zabini. I believe three of his daughters attend Hogwarts?"  
  
"Yes, that's right." Severus confirmed, "Two of them are in Slytherin, but his youngest is a Ravenclaw. Blaise Zabini is in the same year as Draco Malfoy."  
  
"Where they friends?" The Headmaster asked.  
  
"Well, they knew each other, and they talked occasionally, but I think he felt a bit threatened by her, she's very intelligent." He explained.  
  
"And how is she doing at the moment?"  
  
"Funny you should ask." Severus looked troubled; "She seems segregated from her house. Her and Pansy Parkinson were close, but I haven't seen them together lately. In fact..."  
  
"Yes?" Dumbledore inquired.  
  
"The last time I saw her was with Potter." He confessed, "And I've seen her with Potter's friends too, Weasley and Granger. I think she's...integrating into their group."  
  
"How peculiar." Dumbledore peered at Severus over his half moon spectacles, "The daughter of a Death Eater befriending Harry Potter. Peculiar."  
  
"Do you suppose we could use this to our advantage?" He asked, shifting uncomfortably under the Headmaster's questioning gaze, "Not anything that would endanger Miss Zabini, of course."  
  
"Of course." Dumbledore nodded, "Well, we'll have to see. This does cast a new light on things."  
  
They sat in silence, both lost in thought. Sometimes Severus slightly feared the old man that sat before him. He could never quite shake the feeling that Dumbledore was in complete control of every situation, but pretended not to be in order to see how others would act. The vessel, for instance. Dumbledore knew who the vessel was, and Severus was almost sure that he could locate Draco Malfoy. But he did nothing. People would die, kingdoms would crumble, and still he did nothing. Was this man, with the bright blue eyes that could blaze like fire, some sort of divine being? Did he hold back from interfering because beings of his sort where forbidden to? And what would it take to get the old man to finally act? He just hoped it wasn't Draco Malfoy's death.  
  
***  
  
Thanks to:  
  
Raven Eid: It was a good wrap up? Coz I think I just got hungry and wandered off, leaving it as it was...  
  
Ohepelss Oramtnci: I don't think Ginny can help liking Tom! And I hope Draco isn't turning nice...  
  
Queendiablo: Sorry 2 have kept u waiting! Not many people can do fanart apparently...  
  
Wannabeanelvengirl: *feels so flattered* thanks! I'm quite looking 4ward 2 the reunion too!  
  
Crystal Moon Magic: Hopefully (strains on the hopefully) Tom will be removed from the butt  
  
Malenaa: Um... uh... Ok, I have no excuse, that was my big plot whole. Um, well, she is a witch, so she heals faster? Oh, I dunno. Sorry?  
  
Magic Crystal Rose: And it continues. 


	15. Time Of Your Life

Disclaimer: These are just popping up at random, aren't they? Not mine, no money involved.  
  
The Time Of Your Life   
  
It's something unpredictable  
  
But in the end is right I hope you had the time of your life  
  
Greenday-Time of your life  
  
Dedicated to my beta Dom, as always  
  
The Auveray was possibly the oldest creature Ginny had ever seen in her life. Well, actually, he was definitely the oldest creature she had ever met, but he also looked it. His face was so wrinkled and weather-beaten it looked almost black, which contrasted hugely with his pure white hair.  
  
"ïï·ï¡ï®ï ï¦ï¥ï¥ï¹ï­ï ï¡ï²ï­âï®ï®" Mapp said to the Auveray, who nodded slowly, his light green eyes half closed.  
  
"ïï¥ï®ï®ï¡ï ï¦ï¥ï­ï®" He replied.  
  
"He said come close." Mapp whispered, "Auveray is old and wise. Do not lie, he will know. No afraid."  
  
"No afraid." Ginny repeated, feeling very afraid. She glanced over at Draco, who shrugged.  
  
"He's not too bad." The blond boy told her, "He just doesn't like being lied to."  
  
She nodded, and walked over to the old elf. He indicated to a seat in front of him, which she sat down on cautiously.  
  
"Ginni." He said, pronouncing her name the same way Mapp did. He seemed to be trying it out, seeing how it felt in his mouth, "Ginni. Are you well Ginni?"  
  
"Um, yes, thank you." Ginny replied, "And you?"  
  
"We are well." He told her. She guessed he was using the 'royal we', "You were injured by centaurs, we saved you."  
  
"Yeah, thanks for that." Ginny was starting to feel uncomfortable, "Um, is there anything we can do for you as a thank you?"  
  
"Would you be willing?" The Auveray asked, and Ginny remembered what Draco and Mapp had said about lying to him.  
  
"It would depend." She said truthfully, "We'd do anything we could, within reason. Is there anything you want us to help you with?"  
  
"The centaurs will attack. They want you, we have you, so..." He shrugged, "Help defend?"  
  
"Of course!" Ginny smiled at him, "If you want us to use magic to defend you, we can do that. There are all kinds of defensive spells we can put on your village."  
  
"The people of this land will not protect us." The Auveray sighed, "We are lucky to find you."  
  
"We were lucky you found us." She corrected, "We'd have been trampled to death."  
  
"One thing Ginni." He said, "The beast..."  
  
"Tom Riddle." Ginny nodded, "Me and Malfoy are trying to find a way to get rid of him. We were going to ask the centaurs to help but..."  
  
"To destroy the beast they would destroy you." He finished off.  
  
"Yeah, not exactly what I had in mind." She explained, "There's one more person we thought could help us. His name's Samuel Granting's, he lives in England. We thought we could visit him."  
  
"Then go now, and return to us." The Auveray told her, "If beast is gone, help us then return to your home. If it remains...we will help you as we can."  
  
"Thank you." Ginny said for what felt like the millionth time, standing up.  
  
"Bring Mapp." He requested, and Ginny walked over to the younger elf.  
  
"The Auveray wants to speak to you." She told Mapp, who nodded and walked over to him.  
  
"What did you talk about?" Draco asked.  
  
"Not much, he asked us to help them defend themselves against the Centaurs." She replied.  
  
"Did you agree?"  
  
"Of course I agreed Malfoy!" She exclaimed, "They saved our lives, we have to help them."  
  
"Just wanted to know what you got me into." He said, holding up his hands in a sign of surrender.  
  
"Good." She snapped, "Anyway, I told him that we wanted to go and see Samuel Granting's, and he suggested we go now, and come back afterwards."  
  
"That's pretty trusting of him." Draco pointed out, "How does he know we won't just run off if Granting's cures you?"  
  
"You're the one who told me he can tell when you're lying." Ginny reminded him. He winced and rubbed his arm, and realisation hit her, "You tried to lie to him, didn't you! You're a sneak!"  
  
"He asked me if I'd protect you, and I said yes, which is true." He explained, looking sheepish, "Then I got a bit carried away, talking about how I'd put your life in front of my own, so he hit me with a stick on the arm."  
  
"Well, at least I know that you'd attempt to protect me, can't expect much more than that from a Malfoy." She sighed.  
  
"What does that mean?" He asked indignantly, but she just shook her head, "Weasley, what does that mean? Weasley!"  
  
Neil Cullen was the best golfer in the village of Lexford. But then again, the only other golfer in Lexford was his friend Edwin, whose eyesight wasn't all that good, so it wasn't really saying much. Today was a very important day for Neil. His cousin from Scotland had come over, and he was going to finally see how good he was against someone who could see two feet in front of him.  
  
"Blimey, that was a good shot." He said as the ball landed mere inches away from its intended hole.  
  
"Thanks." Roy Cullen said, "I was a bit worried about the wind speed for a moment there. How we doing?"  
  
"You're a little ahead." Neil told him. Honestly, Roy was a lot ahead, but Neil wasn't going to admit that. No, he'd wait patiently until his go and then he'd get his comeback, oh yes he would.  
  
"Your go." Roy said. Neil set his tee up, placed the ball on it, and prepared to hit the ball, glancing momentarily up into the sky...  
  
...And dropping his clubs.  
  
"My god, did you see that?" he exclaimed.  
  
"See what?" Roy asked, looking up into the empty sky.  
  
"It was a bloody Phoenix! A bloody fire bird!" Neil said, jumping up and down in amazement.  
  
"You sure you're not just trying to distract from the game because you're loosing?" The Scottish man asked.  
  
"I bloody well saw a bloody Phoenix! Big yellow and red thing!" Neil insisted.  
  
"Sure you did." Roy nodded, "Anyway, it's still your go."  
  
You might ask yourself why Fawkes let himself be sighted by Muggles. Then again, you might ask yourself why a village with only two golfers had a golf course.  
  
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Blaise sat in the room of requirements; each reading through one of the many newspaper cut outs that Arthur Weasley had sent them. Blaise was leaning idly against Harry, while Hermione was practically on Ron's lap.  
  
"How many things can one man get away with?" Hermione said after a while, "Ok, innocent people do occasionally get accused of things they had nothing to do with, but how many things has Lucius Malfoy been accused of and yet not found guilty?"  
  
"Here's one," Blaise added, "'Malfoy connected with Dragon egg smuggling' I thought that was your friend Hagrid's sort of thing."  
  
"How did you know about that?" Harry asked.  
  
"Draco, he was furious that you weren't expelled and that Hagrid wasn't arrested." She explained.  
  
"Hm, that's a thought, maybe Draco Malfoy was hatched from a Dragon's egg, and then transfigured into a human." Ron suggested, "Then he found out and ran away. That'd explain his name."  
  
"Yuck, don't say that." The dark haired girl crinkled her nose, "That'd mean I kissed a lizard."  
  
"You've kissed Draco Malfoy?" Harry asked, sounding quite hurt.  
  
"Just once, nearly all the girls have." Blaise said defensively.  
  
"Ron you can't transfigure animals into humans." Hermione scolded, "And anyway, if it was possible, then Malfoy would have turned back into a dragon when Moody, or Crouch, whoever he was, turned him into an animal."  
  
"Instead of the Incredible Bouncing Ferret!" Ron crowed, bursting into laughter.  
  
"We're not allowed to laugh at that anymore, as it was Crouch who performed the spell instead of Moody." Harry said, and laughed at the look on his best friend's face.  
  
"That's my fondest memory!" He exclaimed, "You can't take that away from me!"  
  
Hermione sighed in exasperation, and Ron took that as a signal to get back to work. There were several moment of silence and then...  
  
"So who's a better kisser out of me and Malfoy?"  
  
Mapp walked Ginny and Draco (who were back in their disguises) to the edge of a small village near the forest. Technically she and her people weren't allowed to leave the forest as they might be seen by Muggles, but very few of the Elves took notice of this.  
  
"If we not want them to see us, they no see us." She explained, "We not have to try hard, they try to not see us. 'Trick of light' they say. 'Tiredness'. It is good."  
  
"Dad always said that Muggles would go to such lengths to avoid magic." Ginny agreed, "He finds it cute."  
  
"I'm not going to say anything." Draco said, "I could say so many things to that, but I'm not going to say anything because you'll hit me."  
  
"I wouldn't hit you!" She exclaimed, "I'm not a violent person."  
  
"You're a youngest child with loads of older brothers." He reminded her "Of course you hit. You pretty good at it too. A really quick whap round the back of the head. It's really effective."  
  
"Do I hit a lot?" Ginny asked self-consciously.  
  
"I think you've been holding back." He told her.  
  
"I must leave you here." Mapp suddenly cut it, "There is a building which the stars shine in, you must go there. The wizards are there."  
  
"What do you mean, 'the stars shine in'? That doesn't make sense!" Ginny exclaimed. But when she looked around, the Elf was gone.  
  
"Well that was interesting." Draco said.  
  
They wandered around the town for a while, trying desperately to understand Mapp's cryptic directions. How could star's shine inside a building?  
  
"It could be a metaphor." Draco said, "Something to do with the name of the building?"  
  
"I'm not sure." Ginny shook her head, "The Elves are subtle enough, but I don't think they have enough of a grasp on the English language to use metaphors."  
  
After about half an hour they came across a building with a stained glass sloped roof. The stained glass roof had pictures of the stars and moon painted on it.  
  
"You think this is it? Ginny asked, "Coz that was slightly more literal that I expected."  
  
"Not very subtle." Draco agreed. They walked over to the huge wooden doors, which were surprisingly easy to push open. They walked in and found themselves in what looked like a floo hub slash letter hub slash market. It seemed like the town's whole Wizarding community was contained in this one building.  
  
"Oh, Malfoy!" Ginny exclaimed, "I need to check in the letter hub! Aiden might have written to me."  
  
"Lynch." Draco muttered, sneering, "He's so...Lynch."  
  
"Not up to your usual standard." She told him, and then turned to talk to the man at the letter hub. After checking her key, he tapped on the tube, and retrieved her letter.  
  
"It's from Aiden." She told him, and he groaned.  
  
"Who else would it be from?" He asked, and she shrugged, reading it.  
  
"He says that he's really glad that we're safe, and would like to see us soon." Ginny said when she was done, "And some other stuff that won't interest you."  
  
"Is it a love letter Weasley?" Draco teased, "Are you getting love letters from your famous boyfriend?"  
  
"That depends." She grinned slyly, "Are you jealous?"  
  
"What if I am?" He asked with a cocky grin.  
  
"That sucks for you then." She chirped happily and bounded over to the floo hub.  
  
"Wha...? That's not how it was supposed to go!" He called after her, but she didn't seem to hear, and he was left with nothing to do but follow, slightly pink cheeked.  
  
It was dark when they arrived at Timber Tump, which turned out to be little more than a housing estate in the middle of the countryside. The Floo extension was a tiled room with one fireplace and a sleepy attendant. They asked him where the home of Samuel Grantings was, and, sleepily, he gave them directions. Unfortunately, it was raining heavily, the street lamps were almost all broken, and within ten minutes they were lost.  
  
"I'm so cold!" Ginny told him over the noise of the heavy rain, moving at snails pace. They were both wearing their travelling cloaks, and the water was making them weigh a ton, "I can't walk any more, I'm going to collapse."  
  
"We can't stay out all night, we'll catch something!" He called back, "Come on Weasley, we have to move."  
  
"I can't!" She almost shouted, "Really Malfoy, I can't! I'm not as fit as you, I'm going to collapse!"  
  
"Let's get under a tree at least." Draco sighed, "Get out of the rain a bit."  
  
They shimmied under a large oak tree, which, despite the fact that it had lost all its leaves, was able to give them some shelter.  
  
"This would be a funny way to die." Ginny said after a while, "After everything we've been though, we drown to death by the rain."  
  
"Don't be stupid, we're not going to die." He told her, glancing over, "Well, I'm not, look at you! Your lips are blue, and you're shivering!"  
  
"Well, I'm not exactly in the best of health." She snapped, "Ten weeks in nothingness, supernatural possession, being trampled by centaurs, it can take a lot out of you."  
  
"Fine, fine. Look, come here." Draco said, holding out his arms.  
  
"What...?" She asked, eyeing him suspiciously.  
  
"You need warmth, I'm warm, put two and two together Weasley." He held out his arms higher, "It's not hard."  
  
Still looking suspicious, she shuffled over to him and let his place his arms around her. After he completely failed to live up to any of her mistrustful thoughts, she relaxed and allowed his warmth to flow into her. After a little while she looked up into his face, and found him looking at her.  
  
"Your lips are still blue." He told her, gazing at them. She saw, as if in slow motion, his face begin to lower, and was almost unable to move away. She managed to step back, and saw his expression turn from confused to angry, "Look Weasley," He began, but she cut him off.  
  
"It's not that I don't want to." She said, "Coz I kinda do, but not while I look like this, while I look like someone else..."  
  
He nodded, understanding, and then shrugged, "Well, since my cunning plan to kiss you failed, I guess I can just use a warming charm now."  
  
"What!" She exploded, "You could have just used a warming charm and you didn't?"  
  
"Hey, you're a witch, you have a wand." He laughed slightly, "I had the excuse that I wanted to kiss you, you were just being stupid."  
  
"Well, it looks like you won't have to." Ginny told him coldly, "Rains starting to die down, we could probably find our way now."  
  
They began walking again, and after a little while Ginny broke the silence.  
  
"How long have you wanted to kiss me?" She asked.  
  
"Since I had hormones." He replied, "How long have you wanted to kiss me?"  
  
"Since I realised that you were seconds away from kissing me." She told him, "And 'since I had hormones' isn't an answer. I know that boys, as a general rule, want to kiss every girl they can, but when did you actually think that you wanted to kiss me?"  
  
"Ok then, I've wanted to kiss you since I realised that you liked Lynch." He admitted, looking embarrassed.  
  
"You just can't stand the idea of anyone having something you can't have." She laughed, "You're a control freak."  
  
"And I think I know where we are." He pointed out; "This is the walk the attendant told us to go to. And that," He indicated to a small house, "is Granting's house."  
  
"Thank god." Ginny sighed, "Let's go."  
  
They walked over to the house, and Draco knocked on the front door. A few moments later an elderly man opened the door, glaring at them.  
  
"What time do yeh call this then?" He exclaimed angrily, "Who are yeh? What do yeh want?"  
  
"Ivan Noginski sent us." Draco told him, "He said you could help us."  
  
"Noginski, eh?" Grantings nodded, "Damn him. Always interfering him, always interfering. Well, come in, and we'll see what I can do for yeh."  
  
He opened the door and allowed them in. Inside, the house was very much like a Muggles except the pictures on the newspaper that lay on the table moved, and on one of the chairs lay a sleeping kneazle.  
  
"Ezra, move." Grantings muttered, kicking the chair. The cat like creature glared at its master before elegantly jumping off the chair, "Sit down, sit down. So, who has old Noginski sent my way?"  
  
"My names Draco Malfoy, and this is Ginny Weasley." Draco told the old wizard.  
  
"You're no Malfoy, they're all blond poofs." Granting mumbled, and Ginny burst out laughing.  
  
"We are not...not...we are not!" The young boy exclaimed. Grantings looked him over, and eventually nodded.  
  
"Yeah, yer a Malfoy, yeh got the look." He then turned to Ginny, and gave her a similar look over, "Never met a Weasley, wouldn't know how ter tell."  
  
The way he looked at her made Ginny uncomfortable. He wasn't leering at her or anything, on the contrary. He looked scared, like whatever he saw he didn't like.  
  
"Look, the thing is, we know you have a genie, and we really need to make a wish." Draco told him, "If you don't let us...well the consequences lead to a whole lot of badness."  
  
"I've known Noginski for a fair few years now." Grantings told them, "He'd never send you ter me if it weren't important. I'd like ter help yeh, I would, but I don't have the genie no more."  
  
"Why not?" Ginny asked, dread filling her heart. This was the only plan they had left.  
  
"Gambled it away." He said shortly, standing up and busying himself with some cups.  
  
"You had a magical wishing genie and you gamble!" Draco exclaimed, "And you gambled it away!"  
  
"I don't gamble for the winnings, I do it for the experience." He explained, "For the rush. And I may have been a bit worse for drink but..."  
  
"I can't believe this!" Ginny shouted, "You were my last hope! We don't know what else to do. I'm doomed."  
  
"Don't be so dramatic Weasley." Draco said soothingly, "The Elves will help us." He turned to Grantings, "Well, if there's nothing you can do then we'll go."  
  
"It's nearing past eleven at night, and you want ter go out in a storm?" He laughed, "Not while I live. Dry yer clothes, you can sleep on the sofas. I'll get yeh some blankets."  
  
They changed into their nightclothes, Ginny in the bathroom, and used some warming spells to dry their clothes. Grantings gave them some blankets and pillows, and they made themselves comfortable.  
  
"I'll see yeh in the mornin'." He said, and neither of the two teenagers missed the nervous glance her threw Ginny's way before he turned the light off.  
  
"He's scared of you." Draco whispered into the darkness.  
  
"Because I'm so threatening." Ginny whispered back.  
  
"He must know about Tom." He said.  
  
"But how?" Neither could come up with an answer, so they said nothing. Just before she fell asleep, Ginny heard the whispering of something waking up deep inside her mind.  
  
In the Room of Requirements, the four teenagers were almost asleep. Harry was leant up against the wall, Blaise with her head on his shoulder. Ron was full out snoring, lying on his back on the floor, and Hermione was sat next to him, still searching through the paper clippings.  
  
Lucius Malfoy has just funded Poltrick Academy, the biggest Wizarding School in Russia, to have a new wing built in memorial of it's old Headmaster, Kurt Samir who died last spring. Poltrick's new Headmaster has said that he is very thankful, and is looking forward to working with Mr Malfoy on a new project that they have come up with. Lucius Malfoy and Ivan Noginski will be studying the affects of possession on people after they have been ridded of their intruder.  
  
Hermione's brow furrowed in confusion as she tried to battle against her tiredness and the natural fogs of memory. This was something important, she knew that.  
  
"Noginski...?"  
  
Hehe, I made such about getting fanart, but when I finally got it I realised that I'm not sure how to link to it on fanfiction.net! As soon as I do work it out I'll put it up. Thanks to the people who sent some and thanks to my reviewers:  
  
Weirdo101: Thanks!  
  
Ohepelss Oramtnci: I'm so bad; I can't remember what happened last chapter! Well, I think alls working out well...  
  
UntitledN'stayinthatway: There is suspense? There is plot!?!?!?! Since when?  
  
Magic Crystal Rose: I'm really proud of Mapp and the Elves. I've got some great fanart of her.  
  
Chapter 16 is almost complete, expect it in a few days, but I have my GCSE's starting in a week, so updates will be few and far between! 


	16. Empty Heart

Disclaimer: Not mine, no money has been made, everything belongs to J.K.Rowling.  
  
Dedications: To my beta Dom  
  
Empty Heart   
  
You're cold with disappointment While I'm drowning in the next room The last contagious victim of the plague between us I'm sick with apprehension I'm crippled with exhaustion And I dread the moment when you finally come to kill me Blink 182- Stockholm Syndrome  
  
It was with a heavy heart that both Draco and Ginny returned to France. Grantings had been their last hope, for they both knew that as much as the Elves would try, they couldn't help Ginny.  
  
Grantings fed them breakfast when they awoke, and drove them to the Floo extension, saying it was the least he could do. They travelled back to France and walked to the edge of the forest where the Elves lived.  
  
"Can we risk going back in?" Ginny asked, the memory of the centaurs still fresh in her mind.  
  
"I remember the way back to the village." Draco told her, "A bit."  
  
"Is 'a bit' enough?"  
  
"It'll have to do." And with that he walked into the trees, and Ginny could do nothing but follow.  
  
Twenty minutes later, they collapsed on a tree stump in frustration.  
  
"We're lost!" Ginny exclaimed.  
  
"No we're not, Malfoy's are never lost." Draco snapped, "We always know exactly where we are, but sometimes we don't know where anything else is."  
  
"So where are we?" She asked. He looked around, inspected a side of a tree, licked his finger and held it up in the air.  
  
"We're...here." He told her.  
  
"That's useful." She muttered.  
  
"You know, you do whine an awful lot." Draco growled, "I go through all this trouble to help you, and you never say thank you."  
  
"Thank you." She said sarcastically.  
  
"You're welcome. Now, this definitely looks like a path, so it has to be a path to somewhere." He nodded to himself, "If we follow it we're bound to find people."  
  
"It could be a centaurs path." Ginny reminded him.  
  
"Can you see hoof prints?" he asked, "No, because there aren't any. Lets go."  
  
So, with another sigh of frustration, they set off once again in search of people.  
  
"Noginski?" Muttered Hermione. No matter how many times she repeated it to herself, she just couldn't remember where she had heard it before.  
  
It was lunch, and Hermione and her two friends where sat in the common room, still looking through the newspaper clippings.  
  
"Move on Hermione." Ron said, "We've got plenty more clippings to look at, don't stress over this one guy."  
  
"But don't you see Ron, this could be important!" She cried, "I just know I know that name! This could be the most important thing we've discovered."  
  
"Or it could be nothing." Harry pointed out, looking at the piece of paper Hermione was obsessing over, "It says here that he's the headmaster of some big school, maybe you read about him in Hogwarts: A History?"  
  
"I'd know if he were in Hogwarts: A History." She said sharply.  
  
"Ok, maybe he's on some other book you read, he sounds pretty impressive." Harry said, "Look at all this stuff it says he's done. He killed a manticore!"  
  
"Wow, he sounds cool." Ron admitted.  
  
"Come on, we have to get to lunch." Hermione sighed as they all stood and started walking to the Great Hall, "Honestly, I can't understand you two. Whenever I tell you about all the wonderful things some Wizards have done you pretend to fall asleep, this man kills one magical beast and you think he's the bees knees."  
  
"The bees knees?" Ron laughed.  
  
"All the Wizards you tell us about are boring." Harry said, "This Noginski went into the Unplottable Forest all by himself, all by himself!"  
  
"Harry, had you ever even heard of the Unplottable Forest before you read that article?" Hermione asked.  
  
"Not the point." He shrugged, looking past her at an approaching figure, "Hey there."  
  
It was Blaise, obviously on her way to the Great Hall too. She gave Harry a quick kiss on the lips, and two third year Slytherins looked at her in disgust. She had obviously decided that she cared more about her boyfriend than the opinion of her house.  
  
"How was the research going?" She asked.  
  
"Fine, cept Hermione's still obsessing over this Noginski guy." Ron told her, placing his arm affectionately around her shoulders, which she shrugged off.  
  
"I'm not the one who thinks he's so wonderful." She muttered.  
  
"I was thinking about him too." Blaise told her, "I recognised the name, but I couldn't remember from where till this morning. My father mentioned him once or twice. I think they worked together about a year ago."  
  
"At about the same time Lucius Malfoy was working with him?" Hermione said.  
  
"I suppose it would be..." The dark haired girl admitted.  
  
"So the two men who are involved in this 'vessel' thing, also worked with Noginski a year ago." Ron muttered, "Suspicious anyone?"  
  
"Of course!" Hermione exclaimed, "I'll be right back!"  
  
They watched their friend run down the corridor, causing a few first years to jump out of the way in surprise.  
  
"Where's she going?" Blaise asked.  
  
"To the Library." The two boys chimed.  
  
Several times Ginny had pleaded with Draco to let them turn back, but he was adamant that they were going in the right direction. He wasn't sure why, but he assumed it had something to do with the fact that he was pureblood and therefor right about most things. The fact that Ginny was also pureblood didn't bother him, as she was poor, and also hung around with Mudbloods. That sort of thing was sure to mess with your brain.  
  
They had been walking for quite some time when they heard the voices. They could have started shouting and calling then, but neither was stupid, and the agreement to stay quiet was an unspoken one. Making as little noise as possible they continued along the path, wanting to see whom the voices belonged to before being discovered themselves.  
  
Two Wizards stood in a small clearing, both talking in very fast French to a female centaur. It was the first female centaur either of the two teenagers had seen, and sight was sufficiently awesome.  
  
She was much more slender than the males, and wore a provisional shift, although it was clear that she had no breasts to cover. That made sense of course. She probably fed her young from udders of some sort. The centaur looked very uncomfortable in the clothes, and Ginny assumed that it was to make the Wizards more comfortable.  
  
"Do you still have the transo-phones?" Draco whispered, and Ginny nodded. She very carefully slid her bag off her back and onto the floor, and reached inside to pull the transo-phones out. She placed them over her ears, and was instantly able to hear what the Wizards where saying.  
  
"...Elves are becoming more and more troublesome! We need them dead. I can't believe they're keeping humans in the forest. You'll need to attack before the children return. Attack tonight." The smaller Wizards commanded.  
  
"I was not aware that you were giving orders now." The centaur said calmly, "I thought this was a mutual agreement. We help you when we can; you help us when you can. So far we have been helping you a great deal, and have received little help in return. Our Elders grow angry."  
  
"Are you suggesting we're taking advantage of your people?" The taller of the two Wizards demanded, looking offended.  
  
"Yes, that is what I am suggesting." She said, "We will attack the Elves tonight, but not because you asked us to. Before we do any more of you bidding, you must do something for us. We are not you pets, or your servants. We have an alliance. We are equals."  
  
It was clear from the way she said that that she didn't think they were equals at all, that she thought that they were quite below her.  
  
"Of course we are." The smaller Wizard was partially obscured, but from the suck-up tone of his voice they could imagine that his face would be twisted into some sort of simpering smile, "We were just proposing that it might be a good idea for you to-"  
  
"You make me ill to look at human." She cut him off, "And you make me even more ill when you pull that face. I have just done you the courtesy of telling you the truth, you have insulted me by lying to me, and insulted me even more by expecting that I would not notice."  
  
"I am sorry madam, I didn't mean to offend!" He cried, "I have the utter most respect for your people, and I-" But he never got to finish his sentence, as she reared up, her front two legs kicking out, connecting with his head. The small wizard dropped to the floor, dead. Ginny clamped her hand over her mouth to prevent a gasp escaping.  
  
"Tell your master that I have killed your brother." The centaur said to the taller wizard, "Tell him not to send others like him. I will not tolerate fools. If he wishes for his servants to return to him after visiting me, then he should only send those with sufficient intelligence."  
  
"Should I take the fact that I'm still alive as a compliment?" He asked.  
  
"We centaurs are not irrational." She said with a cruel smile, "If I was to kill you, who would deliver the message to your master?"  
  
And with that the meeting was over. The centaur turned around and galloped into the forest, and the Wizard, after looking down at his dead colleague, apparated away.  
  
"She killed him!" Ginny gasped as soon as the cost was clear, "She just killed that man! Just because he was annoying her!"  
  
"Centaurs are not very permitting." Draco explained casually, "To be honest, I probably would have killed him myself."  
  
"Tell me that was a joke." She snapped.  
  
"Of course it was a joke." He held up his hands. Anyway, it was a joke. Well, half of one.  
  
"We have to tell the Elves that the centaurs are going to attack." Ginny said, "Maybe they'll have time to prepare."  
  
"How do we find them?" Draco asked, looking around.  
  
"You don't." Came a voice from behind them, "We find you."  
  
It wasn't Mapp, but another Elf, this one male. Ginny yelped in surprise upon hearing his voice, and Draco stumbled into a bush.  
  
"I am sorry to have scared you friend Draco." He said, offering a hand to help him out, which Draco grudgingly took, "And you too, friend Ginni."  
  
"It's ok." She whispered, holding a hand to her heart, "We have something important to tell you."  
  
"When we return you may tell the Auveray."  
  
"How long have you known we were here?" Draco asked.  
  
"For a few moments before I came to you." The Elf told them, "I was given the job to await for you arrival, and then come and fetch you. It took longer than expected; something was blocking my magic. I had to listen to the trees to find your location."  
  
"The bracelet." Ginny said, grabbing Draco's wrist, "It stops us from being tracked."  
  
"No magic can hide from the tress." He held out a hand, "I am Nemiah. And I, of course, know who you are. Mapp talked about you to me last night."  
  
"Why didn't Mapp come to get us?" Draco asked.  
  
"She went into, what the name...? Child bearing, yes." Nemiah told them.  
  
"Mapp was pregnant?" Ginny exclaimed, "But she was so thin!"  
  
"Being with child is nothing for our females." He grinned, showing slightly green teeth, "Raising the child however...we will all help. Few of our females are able to have children, they are very important to us. I am lucky to about to become a father."  
  
"You and Mapp...?" Draco asked.  
  
"Yes, me and Mapp." Nemiah nodded, "Now, come! We must go to the village."  
  
"You're very good at English you know." The blond boy told them as they walked.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
By the time they saw Hermione again lunch had ended, and they were in potions. She rushed through the door just in time, and took her seat next to Ron. The two boys looked at her expectantly, but she just shook her head, pointing at Snape.  
  
"Today you will be learning about an anti-truth telling potion." He smiled, "it makes whoever takes it incapable of telling the truth. Not that many of you have any problem telling lies. Get into pairs, the instructions," He waved at the black board and words appeared on it, "are on the board. Begin."  
  
Ron and Hermione immediately paired up, and Blaise was about to walk over to join Harry when Snape interfered.  
  
"Potter, it appears as though your friends have deserted you. No mind, you can work with Mr Crabbe." He said with a cruel smirk.  
  
"Excuse me Sir," Came a voice from behind him, "I was hoping to work with Harry, if that's ok."  
  
It was, of course, Blaise, and the Potions Master found himself with a dilemma. He was torn between trying to cause Harry as much miserable as possible, and allowing the best potions maker in his house have her own way.  
  
"If that is what you want, Miss Zabini." Snape finally agreed distastefully, "Although I have no idea why..."  
  
They took a place next to Ron and Hermione, and after several minutes of preparing, found two identical notes thrust under their noses.  
  
'Vessel- a human being used to hold the soul or essence of another human being using either possession or soul transference. The idea is theoretical, and has only ever been researched by one Ivan Noginski.' The Vessel is a person! I am going to research more about the theory. I told you Noginski was important!  
  
The last bit was not added on Blaise's note, but when he looked over Harry could see that it was on Ron's, with considerably more exclamation marks.  
  
"Well done Hermione." He whispered. Blaise quickly elbowed him in the stomach, and Harry looked up to see Snape glaring at him.  
  
"Is there anything you want to share Potter?" He asked, his voice icy.  
  
"Just this note." Blaise grabbed it, and held out her hand as if to give it to Snape. As the Professor reached for it however, she 'accidentally' dropped it into the simmering cauldron, "Oh! Sorry Professor!"  
  
"That is...alright, Miss Zabini." Snape said, his lips thin, "Five points from Gryffindor for passing notes."  
  
"I hate him, I really do." Muttered Harry, his teeth clenched, "You and Pansy Parkinson used to always pass notes, and he never said anything."  
  
"He's a bit unfair, but he's a really good teacher!" Blaise defended her Head of House, but he could see her heart wasn't in it, "He's just...very Slytherin."  
  
"You're not like him." The dark haired boy pointed out.  
  
"I'm exactly like that." She replied, and smiled apologetically.  
  
They had not, it turned out, been far from the Elves village. Nemiah and Draco talked, but Ginny was distracted. She wanted desperately to tell The Elf what they had found out about the centaur's plans, but he seemed determined not to listen.  
  
"It is not for me to hear." He said when she tried to speak for the third time, "All news is spoken to the Auveray first, to be any different would be disrespectful to him."  
  
"Oh, alright." She sighed, still frustrated, "But we have to tell him straight away, before we do anything else."  
  
"Of course." And then he turned back to Draco, and Ginny was left with nothing but her thoughts.  
  
And once again, something deep within her mind stirred, just a little louder than it had before.  
  
When they arrived they were taken straight to the Auveray, who was waiting for them.  
  
"Friend Ginni, Friend Draco." He greeted, "I see the beast remains. I am sorry your journey was not successful."  
  
"There'll be other opportunities." Draco said, which wasn't true, and earned him a scowl from the old Elf, "Well, we hope there will." He amended.  
  
"As do I." The Auveray replied.  
  
"We found out something." Ginny told him quickly before the conversation could move on, "The centaurs are going to attack tonight! We saw one of them talking with some Wizards."  
  
"I feared it was so." The Elf nodded, "Nemiah," he turned to the younger Elf and said something in Elfish. Nemiah nodded and walked out, looking stern.  
  
"He will lead the non fighters to safety, then return." The Auveray said, "Tonight, we will fight. Will you aid us?"  
  
"Of course." Ginny replied instantly, earning her a scowl from Draco.  
  
"Will you help, friend Draco?" The old Elf asked, and no one could miss the accusing tone of voice.  
  
"Er..." He looked around at all the Elves who were in the room, and sighed deeply, defeated, "Yes I'll help."  
  
"Good." He nodded, "We have much time yet. You may return to the hut where you have been staying and rest. We will call for you when we need you."  
  
"I don't think they know we're back." Ginny said before they left, "So we'll probably have the element of surprise."  
  
"That is good." The Auveray nodded, and the closed his old eyes and she took that as a sign that the meeting was over.  
  
They entered the small cabin, and Ginny sat down on the makeshift bed. Draco rummaged through his bag, and pulled out the vial of potion that would turn them back to their rightful selves. "Do you think we should take it?" he asked, "We don't have much of the other potion left, we can turn into our disguises one more time, maybe two if we can stretch it."  
  
"I think we should." Ginny said after some thought, "This might be our last night alive, I'd like to die in my own body."  
  
"We've survived more than this." He reminded her, "You've survived way more than this. We can handle some puny little centaurs."  
  
"Did that centaur look puny to you?" She asked, "I think we should take the potion anyway. Just in case."  
  
"Just in case." Draco repeated, and handed her the small vial before drinking from his own.  
  
Once both transformed back into their own body, they sat in silence, contemplating the battle that was to come. Both were quite good at Defense Against The Dark Arts, and Ginny had the added bonus of having attended the DA lessons Harry had provided. But the thought of facing a heard of centaurs was a frightening one, even if they did have the Elves to back them up. They looked at each other, and wordlessly shuffled closer and closer until they were sitting next to each other.  
  
Their last lessons were over and the four teenagers wandered outside, wanting to talk away from prying ears. It was getting bitterly cold, and they all wore their heavy travelling cloaks in order to stay warm. Once they were sure no one was near by, they sat down and all looked expectantly at Hermione.  
  
"Well, we know the Vessel is a human." She said, "And we know that Malfoy stole him or her from under his father's nose, and that's why he's on the run."  
  
"With whoever this vessel is." Harry added.  
  
"And this person has been possessed by something?" Ron asked.  
  
"That's what it looks like." Hermione nodded, "So the only people who know who the Vessel is are the Malfoy's and Noginski."  
  
"And my father." Blaise added, "Not that he's lightly to tell us."  
  
"Nor the Malfoys." Hermione said with a sigh, "Which means..."  
  
"That we'll have to ask Noginski?" Ron asked, and they all nodded, "Well how are we going to do that? Isn't his school in Russia or something?"  
  
"Well yes." Hermione responded, "But it says that he does lectures on all his expeditions on Sundays, and you can get to the school using a special route. You floo to this hotel, and then you get a portkey to the school. If we tried hard enough we could probably get Hogwarts to fund the expedition if we said that it would help us with Defense Against The Dark Arts."  
  
"And we'll just what, go up to him and ask him about his illegal doings?" Blaise asked, "That'll go over well."  
  
"He's Headmaster of Poltrick!" The brown haired girl exclaimed, "I very much doubt he's actually on Voldemort's side," Ron and Blaise flinched, and received reproaching glances from the Muggle raised members of the group, "he probably just got roped into this."  
  
"Quirrel was a teacher." Harry reminded her, "And wasn't he a barrel of laughs."  
  
"Well, we can go, and if we get nothing from it more than an improved NEWT's score, then so be it." Hermione said after some thought, "But we can't pass up the chance of finding out who Malfoy's travelling with. It could point us in the right direction of finding out where he is."  
  
"I know I shouldn't, coz we're 'pro-Malfoy' these days," Ron told them as they stood up, "But I really hope he's really miserable at the moment, that he's having a really rotten time."  
  
In the small cabin that the Eves had given them to stay in, Ginny and Draco sat on the cold damp floor, their arms around each other's necks, softly kissing.  
  
This is the first (thing I remember) Now it's the last (thing left on my mind) Afraid of the dark (do you hear me whisper) An empty heart (replaces paranoia) Where do we go (life's temporary) When we're gone (like New Years resolutions) Why is this hard (do you recognise me) I know I'm wrong (but I can't help believing) Blink 182- Stockholm Syndrome  
  
Thanks to:  
  
UntitledN'stayinthatway: Wow, not only do I have a plot, but apparently it's a good one? I'll just put it down to dumb luck. Thanks!  
  
SugarGirl: My aim is to please. I'm glad you liked it. 


	17. Falling Again

Disclaimer: So boring! It's not mine, ok?  
  
Dedications: To my Beta Dom  
  
A.N. Just watched the new Harry Potter movie; it totally renewed my love for Harry Potter. If you haven't watched it...then you must!  
  
Falling Again   
  
That's what you get for falling again, You can never get him out of your head And that's what you get for falling again You can never get him out of your head It's the way that he makes you feel It's the way that he kisses you It's the way that he makes you fall in love Sugarcult-Pretty Girl  
  
It wasn't that she really liked him. It wasn't even that she fancied him. But it really looked like she was going to die here, and Draco wasn't that bad when you got to know him.  
  
"Uh, Weasley." He said, breaking away, "You do realise I'm using you, right?"  
  
"You have no subtlety." Ginny sighed, "Don't worry, if we live through tonight, I won't expect a marriage."  
  
He dipped his head, capturing her lips again.  
  
WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE A KISS SEALED A MARRIAGE.  
  
"No." She whispered, breaking away, "Oh no."  
  
"Ok, I'm confused." Draco's brows furrowed.  
  
"I can hear him again." Ginny explained, "Tom. He's back."  
  
"Well, doesn't that just ruin the mood." He sighed, shaking his head, "We should tell the Elves."  
  
They made their way to the building where the Auveray stayed, and entered nervously. How did you announce yourself to the Head Elf?  
  
Sitting by a doorway was Nemiah. The door was blocked by a particularly stocky elf, which was glaring at him and saying something in Elfish. He shook his head, and then saw them. Smiling, he walked over and greeted them.  
  
"Why come, friends?" He asked.  
  
"We need to speak to the Auveray." Draco explained. Nemiah nodded, and brought them over to the old Elf, who looked surprised to see them. Ginny quickly explained that Tom was back, and the look of surprise deepened.  
  
"Not possible." He said, "Potion make beast go away long time. Too soon to be back."  
  
"He's only said one thing." Ginny maintained, "But it was him."  
  
"The he is too strong." The Auveray shook his aged head, "Our magic too weak."  
  
"There's nothing you can do?" She asked. The old Elf shook his head again, "Oh. Well...than you for trying."  
  
"You are noble, Friend Ginni." Nemiah said, surprising them, "We are honoured to have you here."  
  
"Well we-" Ginny began, but was cut off by a chorus of shouts. A young Elf rushed into the room, babbling in Elfish. Nemiah held the youth steady, and it appeared to start again, slower.  
  
"Centaurs are here." Nemiah told them, "Come quick."  
  
The followed the Elf out, pulling out their wands. Lots of Elves were rushing around, but Draco could see a few moving purposely in the same direction as them. Most were male, and all were full-grown. They had strange weapons; lots of them that looked like bow and arrows. Nemiah pulled out a long thin sword made from wood.  
  
The Elves with weapons formed a barrier around the entrance to the village, and then they were still. Ginny could hear the sound of hoof steps rumbling closer, and she began to tremble. She felt something move against her hand, and when she looked, she saw Draco had taken hold of it.  
  
"Don't die, ok Weasley?" He said, smiling weakly.  
  
"You too." She replied.  
  
IF I WERE TO TAKE OVER, Tom said from inside her mind, I'D BE ABLE TO FIGHT THESE HORSES OFF WITH EASE FOR YOU.  
  
'But would you?' She thought back, 'or would you just save your own skin and leave all of them to die?'  
  
I COULD BE PERSUADED. He replied, HAVING THE HELP OF THE ELVES COULD BE USEFUL. BESIDES, I DON'T THINK I LIKE THE SOUND OF THIS FRENCH DARK LORD. IF I WERE TO TAKE CONTROL, HE WOULD BE THE SECOND PERSON I WOULD GET RID OF.  
  
'The first being Harry Potter?' Ginny asked.  
  
THE FIRST BEING MY OLDER COUNTERPART. He corrected.  
  
'You never could be second best.' And Ginny felt a small smile form on her lips. She forced her expression back into a frown, a feeling of guilt in her stomach. She shouldn't enjoy talking to Tom.  
  
The rumbling of hoof steps was now so loud it was almost deafening. How many centaurs where there?  
  
"Stunning spells?" Draco whispered.  
  
"Yeah." She replied, nodding. She squeezed his hand, and felt much better for it.  
  
And then the first centaur appeared.  
  
Amelia Grigg was probably the youngest staff member at Hogwarts. She had taken the Defence Against The Dark Arts post in the hope that she would learn more from Albus Dumbledore, who was her idol. She had certainly learnt a lot, and one of the lessons had been that when the top student in a year came to you with a request, it was very hard to find an excuse to say no.  
  
It wasn't that she disliked Hermione Granger, not at all. In fact, she found the girl quite sweet. It was just that she felt sixth years shouldn't be quite as smart as that. In fact, lots of adult's who Amelia knew weren't as smart as Hermione.  
  
"A funded trip to Poltrick?" She repeated.  
  
"I just think that it would be a very good opportunity to learn something new." Hermione said nervously, "Ivan Noginski is very interesting, and has done some wonderful things. Me and my friends would really like to see him talk, but, um, one of us can't really afford it."  
  
Amelia looked at the list. Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Harry potter and Blaise Zabini. Well, there was no question of which that friend was.  
  
"Can't you just leave him-I mean your friend, behind?" She asked  
  
"No." Hermione replied sternly, "I've looked at all the relevant texts concerning this matter, they all say that as long we have our parents permission to go, the school has to fund it unless there is a compelling reason not to."  
  
"And do you all have your parents permission?" Amelia asked suspiciously.  
  
"I thought it best to see if you would allow it before we wrote home." The teenage girl told her, "Just to make sure we weren't wasting our time. If you say yes we'll have the permission slips by the end of the week."  
  
"I'll talk to the Headmaster." The DADA teacher said finally, giving up, "If he says yes, and you bring me the permission slips, I'll make sure the trip is funded."  
  
"Thank you Professor." Hermione chirped, and left the room.  
  
Amelia sighed. It wasn't that she disliked Hermione, not that at all. But nobody should be as smart as her.  
  
It was a male Centaur, tall and magnificent. In his hand he held a broad sword twice the length of any Draco had seen before.  
  
"Stupefy!" He shouted, and heard his voice echoed by Ginny's. But the jets of red light just bounced off the centaur.  
  
"No!" Ginny shouted as the centaur took a swing at an Elf, "Impedimenta!"  
  
This did work, and the centaur was frozen. Twenty or so arrows fired at him, and when he unfroze he collapsed to the ground, dead.  
  
"Good work Weasley." Draco conceded, but she had no time to feel pride at her spell, the other centaurs had arrived. Taking a leaf from Ginny's book Draco immediately started hitting them with the Impediment Jinx, letting the Elves take care of them after that.  
  
"Incarcerous!" Unknowingly, Ginny had just used the same spell on one of the charging centaurs as Professor Umbridge had the previous year. Ropes flew from her wand, and entangled one of the centaurs, "Ha, take that! Reducto!"  
  
"Stupefy!" Draco shouted, feeling slightly resentful that Ginny was using much more inventive spells than he was, "Uh, tarantallegra!" That one worked hugely well, the centaurs four legs flying around madly, making it trip over itself and kick it's comrades.  
  
And the Elves were amazing. For a peace-loving race they sure knew how to protect themselves. Arrows flew through the air, almost always hitting their marks, and swords pierced the leathery skin of the centaurs.  
  
"Why won't you fall down?" Draco said between gritted teeth. It seemed that no matter how many times he tried, the centaurs were immune to the stunning spell, "Fine, reducto! Stupid horse!"  
  
"Impedimenta! Impedimenta!" Ginny's heart felt like it was going to burst through her chest. She had lost sight of Draco, and was having a hard time aiming. She didn't want to hit an Elf by accident. She had only ever been very good in the DA lessons because Michael never wanted to curse her!  
  
But they were winning. Only a few centaurs remained, and they looked tired and beaten. The Elves encircled the remaining Elves, their swords, spears and arrows pointed at them. Ginny relocated Draco, who, apart from a few bruises, was fine.  
  
Nemiah was talking to the centaurs in a language that was not human or Elfish, which, the two teenagers could only assume, was the centaur's language. One of the remaining centaurs broke away from the group and was allowed to walk towards the forest edge. Nemiah followed him closely, his sword pointed towards the tall creature.  
  
It happened too quickly for anyone to react. The centaur reared up and kicked its front legs out, one, two, so quickly that it was a blur. The legs connected with Nemiah's scull, and the Elf dropped to the floor.  
  
What followed was a massacre. The Elves, who had been so peaceful, didn't leave a single centaur alive. While they had been fighting out of necessity before, now they fought out of pure rage. Ginny turned away, appalled, but Draco watched. He understood. Nemiah had given the centaurs a chance, and they had killed him.  
  
When the killing was over one of the Elves came over to talk to them.  
  
"Many thanks for aid you give us." He said, "Auveray see you...later time?"  
  
"Yes." Draco nodded. This Elf obviously spoke very little English.  
  
"Go sleep place, rest." He told them, "Other fetch you later time."  
  
"Thank you." Draco turned to leave, but Ginny stayed still.  
  
"What about Nemiah?" She asked, "What about Mapp?"  
  
"Later time." He repeated, "All later time. Auveray speak it you."  
  
That made practically no sense, but Ginny assumed it meant that the Auveray would explain.  
  
"Come on Weasley, let's go." Draco called.  
  
She followed him silently.  
  
HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THAT YOUR HURT. Tom told her, I DO.  
  
'You always understand me.' She replied.  
  
ALWAYS.  
  
Hermione handed out the pieces of paper to her three friends. They were all identical permission slips to attend the Noginski talk. Blaise looked at it sceptically.  
  
"For some reason I think my father might object to me going to see Noginski." She told them, "He may find it a tad suspicious that I'm going to see the man who he worked with on the 'vessel' thing."  
  
"That's a good point." Hermione nodded, "Ok, pass it here."  
  
Blaise handed it over, and the brown haired girl pulled out her wand and, muttering, tapped it against the paper. She handed it back, and when Blaise looked at it the name 'Noginski' had been changed to 'Tedesco'.  
  
"I'll change it back as soon as we get the reply." Hermione told them.  
  
"Who's that?" Ron asked, checking the paper.  
  
"Duncan Tedesco, the explorer?" She replied sounding exasperated, "Honestly Ron, I told you about him last week. Do you listen to a word I say?"  
  
"I always listen to everything you say." He told her, kissing her cheek, "But I'm too stupid to remember it all."  
  
"Honestly." She sighed, but she was smiling.  
  
They walked to the Owlery together and each sent the letters to their parents. Harry sent his to Remus as he sincerely doubted that the Dursley's would let him do anything he might find enjoyable.  
  
"Lupin was a good teacher." Blaise said thoughtfully, "Everyone thought so, even Draco. He was very fond of Umbridge though."  
  
They all pulled a face and laughed. They were all imagining Umbridge being chased from the school by Peeves with McGonagall's walking stick.  
  
They had been waiting in the small hut for over an hour. Draco had been pacing up and down while Ginny had been sitting on the floor. She had, after about fifteen minutes, started crying, but she had dried up by now. Her eyes were closed, and Draco suspected she was talking to Tom. It might have made him feel better if he knew he was right, but probably not.  
  
An Elf appeared at the door and motioned for them to follow her. She took them to the wooden building, and then to the Auveray himself.  
  
"Friend Draco, Friend Ginni." He greeted, "You fought well. Without you, we may have lost."  
  
"What happened with Nemiah?" Ginny asked straight away.  
  
"He was to se the centaur free." The Auveray explained, "It was to tell the other's not to attack again. It chose to attack him. The Warrior Elves fought back."  
  
"What's going to happen to Mapp?" She asked.  
  
"We all care for the young." He told them, "Always. She will be fine."  
  
"Can we see her?" it was Draco who spoke this time.  
  
"Soon." The old Elf replied, "Not now." He cleared his throat, "Friend Draco, Friend Ginni, we thank you for the help you have given us, and as thanks we ask for you to stay with us for as long as you wish."  
  
"Thank you Auveray." The blond boy smiled, "We may be around for a while. We don't really have anywhere to go."  
  
"We are honoured to have you." The Auveray now looked sad; "Tonight we will say goodbye to our dead. There is a ceremony. You will attend?"  
  
"Yes." Ginny replied.  
  
"You may go. You can return to your sleeping place, but you do not have to." They said their goodbyes and turned to leave, but he called out one more time, "Friend Ginni?"  
  
"Yes?" She called back.  
  
"He is cunning and sly. Do not let him deceive you." His sleepy eyes suddenly looked awake and sharp, "You want rid of him, remember that."  
  
Ginny said nothing, but held her chin up high in defiance.  
  
WHAT DO YOU THINK, VIRGINIA DEAR? Tom asked, AM I CUNNING AND SLY? AND DO YOU WANT RID OF ME?  
  
'Tom, I really wish you'd stop asking me questions you already know the answer to.' Was all she said in reply.  
  
The ceremony started late. The Elves did not bury their dead, instead the burnt them. It was the moment where Ginny realised how very different Elves were to humans. The bodies, instead of blistering and charring, began to glow faintly. The glow grew stronger and stronger until the bodies burst into a million particles of light. The Auveray, who was dressed in long robes made from the mossy material, chanted softly, his arms spread wide. The particles of light drifted towards him, landing on his skin. For a moment he seemed to be made of the particles, and then they all disappeared.  
  
HE'S TAKEN THEM INTO HIMSELF. Tom explained, IT'S THE ELFISH WAY. THE AUVERAY ACTS AS A VESSEL FOR THE DEAD ELVES, AND WHEN HE DIES HE AND ALL THE ELVES HE'S TAKEN INTO HIM GET ABSORBED INTO A TREE. THAT TREE IS THEN NAMED AFTER HIM.  
  
'Mapp looks so sad.' Ginny sighed gently, 'Nemiah was her companion.'  
  
Mapp stood across from them, her large eyes shining with tears. She held to her a small bundle, which, Ginny assumed, held the baby Elf.  
  
IT'S HARD LOOSING SOMEONE YOU LOVE. Tom agreed, YOU KNOW THAT.  
  
'Only I never really lost you, did I?' She asked, 'You've been inside me all this time, waiting for the opportunity to come back and irritate me into insanity.'  
  
I THINK THE POINT IS, he countered, YOU NEVER LET ME LEAVE.  
  
They both fell silent, watching the ceremony.  
  
Draco could feel her talking to Tom. If someone had asked how he wouldn't be able to explain. It was just the distinct feeling that she wasn't all there, that her attention was on something else as well.  
  
The ceremony ended with a ritual dance. Four Elves made their way to the middle of the circle of spectators and began. Draco's attention began to wander. It was hard to be interested in something you don't understand when there is no one to explain it to you. Instead he looked at the spectators. Lots of them, like Mapp, looked like they were saying goodbye to friends and loved ones. Some of the elderly Elves looked as though they were close to death themselves.  
  
And then there was Ginny. Ginny, who only hours before, he had been kissing. She wasn't talking to Tom anymore, all her attention was on the dance. He wondered, briefly, if she was imagining her own funeral. But then he decided she wasn't. All her attention would be on the dead.  
  
And she was so damn beautiful! It should have made it easier, it should have just meant that he was only interested in her for her looks. But it didn't. There was no way he could get around the fact that his entire world revolved around her now.  
  
It's just as well we're in exile, Draco thought to himself, imagine going through this and having to worry about what my Father would think.  
  
After the ceremony there was a feast. There was lots of talk and song, not that Draco or Ginny could tell the difference between the two when they were in Elfish. There was a lot of laughter too. The funeral had been a mourning of death; this was a celebration of life.  
  
Mapp sat next to them. She didn't laugh or sing. He large eyes seemed hollow, devoid of the innocence Ginny had seen in them the first time she had met Mapp. It seemed ludicrous that it was only a few days ago.  
  
"Is this you baby?" Ginny asked, indicating to the bundle. Mapp nodded and moved to show Ginny. She could see a little yellow head and arm. The baby's eyes were open, and were also yellow.  
  
"I have named her Ginni." Mapp told her, "She will know of the brave human who fought by the side of her father."  
  
"Um...is she supposed to be yellow?" She asked uncertainly.  
  
"We turn green after the first year." Mapp explained, "It is a time of great importance. Nemiah and I would perform a rite. Not it will only be me."  
  
"I'm sorry we couldn't..." Ginny began to Mapp cut her off.  
  
"No." She shook her head; "There is no blame, only thanks. You saved us all."  
  
But Ginny still felt a twinge of guilt in her heart. Mapp just looked so...old. There was no innocence, no sweet ignorance. Mapp had lost a loved one, the father of her child. And Ginny had been unable to save him.  
  
"I'm sorry." She said finally. The meal was coming to an end, and everyone was getting up to leave.  
  
"Come on Weasley." Draco called, "We better get going, get some sleep. It's not been an easy day."  
  
"Yeah. Goodnight Mapp." After hesitating for a moment Ginny leant down and kissed the Elf on the cheek, "I'll see you later."  
  
"Goodnight Fried Ginni." Mapp said quietly.  
  
Once back to their hut they changed into their night-clothes, their backs turned to each other. Neither was in the mood for jokes about peeping. They climbed into their beds and Draco put out the light on his wand.  
  
"Goodnight Weasley." He called into the darkness.  
  
"Night Malfoy." Ginny replied, 'Goodnight Tom.' She said in her mind.  
  
GOODNIGHT SWEET GINNY. His voice held no sarcasm, and she felt warmth spread through her.  
  
'You're not winning me over.' She thought sternly.  
  
VIRGINIA, she could hear the laughter, I WISH YOU WOULDN'T SAY THINGS WE BOTH KNOW ARE NOT TRUE.  
  
She didn't reply. What could she say in reply to that?  
  
And the warm feeling didn't go away.  
  
Thanks to:  
  
Damia-Queen of the Gypsi's: So annoying when parents do that... Thanks for the compliment. I have no idea how 2 respond...  
  
Taika: Hehe, I have a plot. I only became aware of that a few days ago... I'm sorry you had to sacrafice 3 days for my story!  
  
Moose: I'm glad you did not hate me and throw things at me for doing Draco/Ginny!  
  
Readingfreak742: Um, the ending? Uh oh... Hadn't thought about that...  
  
GinnyYvetteHermione: I'm updating now! Look at my obedient self go...  
  
Magic Crystal Rose: Well this chapter answered one of your questions at least! You'll have to wait for the others. Possibly forever if I get bored and don't bother finishing this fic. 


	18. I Have You Trapped

Disclaimer: Not mine. I have no enthusiasm to go into details.  
  
I Have You Trapped   
  
They had been in the village for a week when it first snowed. The Elves looked annoyed but Ginny thought it was wonderful. She stood outside and twirled in circles, her face pointed up to greet the snow, which feel to her skin like kisses. Draco stood in the doorway of their hut looking out, and watched her dance. He could honestly say he had never seen her so happy. But he couldn't stop a frown from crossing his face. She was talking to Tom again. Sighing, he turned around and went back inside.  
  
'Ah! It's wonderful!' Ginny exclaimed, 'Oh, I've missed the snow so much.'  
  
I'M GLAD YOU'RE HAPPY. He told her, ALTHOUGH I'VE NEVER REALLY LIKED SNOW MYSELF. I'M MORE OF AN AUTUMN PERSON.  
  
'And why's that?' She asked, crouching to the floor to make a snowman.  
  
I LIKE TO WATCH EVERYTHING DIE. He told her, I FIND IT VERY BEAUTIFUL.  
  
'Nothing ever dies forever.' She replied. He didn't say anything back, so she made her snowman in silence.  
  
They had all received their permission slips within a few days, and after Hermione had changed 'Tedesco' back to 'Noginski' they handed them back into Amelia Grigg. After admitting that Dumbledore had agreed to fund their trip, she began to make preparations. With only two weeks to go before they were to break up for their Christmas holidays, she called Harry, Hermione and Ron back after class.  
  
"On the first Sunday of the Christmas Holidays you have to meet me at the Leaky Cauldron at six in the morning." She told them.  
  
"Six in the morning!" Ron exclaimed.  
  
"You might want to stay there the night before." She added, "I'll take you to the Floo Hub, and give you further instruction then. You'll tell Miss Zabini?"  
  
"Of course." Hermione nodded, "Thank you Professor Grigg."  
  
"It's interesting," She told them just as they were about to leave, "Not many people have a huge amount of interest in the works of Noginski. Now you, Miss Granger, I can imagine wanting to learn more about him, but what about you Mr Potter, Mr Weasley?"  
  
"Well, he's really cool, isn't he?" Harry replied, looking shifty, "I mean, he killed that Manticore, that's pretty impressive."  
  
"And he explored the Unplottable Forest, which is cool." Ron added, looking equally as shifty.  
  
"You know what the Unplottable Forest is?" Amelia asked.  
  
"I have a vague idea." He replied, looking defiant.  
  
"For all you know it could be a small patch of trees." The professor pointed out.  
  
"It's not! They wouldn't have made it Unplottable if it was!" He turned to Hermione quickly; "It isn't, is it?"  
  
"No, it isn't." Hermione reassured him, "Professor, you see how badly they need to go to this lecture."  
  
"Yes, yes." She sighed, "Well, go on, you'll be late for your next lesson if you don't hurry."  
  
Saying goodbye they hurried away. Amelia sighed, turning back to her desk. She didn't think she was really cut out to be a teacher.  
  
The weeks churned by slowly. Ginny and Draco made themselves as useful as possible, but usually found themselves with little to do. When this happened Ginny would sneak away to be with Mapp and Baby Ginni and Draco would watch the Warrior Elves train.  
  
They were extremely good fighters, Draco had seen that during the fight with the centaurs, but now he saw that they were also extremely disciplined. All their moves where clear and concise. Lucius had taught Draco fencing when he was younger, and although he had never been very interested he had picked up a few things. He knew enough to see that these Elves were experts.  
  
One day after about five days of him watching them, one of the Elves Draco had silently named 'Bob' came over to talk to him.  
  
"You watch us practice often." He stated.  
  
"Yes." Draco replied, "You're all really good."  
  
"You would like to learn?" 'Bob' suggested.  
  
"Would you teach me?" He asked.  
  
"I would."  
  
"Ok." He nodded. 'Bob' grinned and led him into the paddock where they trained. He taught Draco a few basic moves, and they went from there. He found that what he had picked up in fencing came in handy. After that he went and practised with them everyday.  
  
Ginny's time with Mapp was often spent in silence. Occasionally Mapp would explain something about Elfish culture, or point out something she found particularly adorable to do with Baby Ginni. But apart from that they didn't talk much. Not that Ginny minded. When Mapp fell silent she would talk to Tom.  
  
'Isn't she adorable?' Ginny asked. She was holding Baby Ginni while Mapp slept; 'Once you get over the fact that she's yellow you can see how pretty she is.'  
  
I'VE NEVER REALLY HAD MUCH INTEREST IN BABIES. Tom admitted, IT'S PROBABLY A GIRL THING.  
  
'That's stupid Tom.' She told him, 'My Dad always looked after me and my brother's when we were babies. Just because your father never had any interest in you, doesn't mean all father's are like that.'  
  
She regretted it as soon as she said it. She felt him clam up inside her, felt his anger flare.  
  
MY FATHER WAS COMPLETE SCUM, HE WAS VERMIN. Tom snapped, HE WAS LUCKY MY MOTHER EVEN THOUGHT TO LOOK AT HIM. HE WAS SCUM.  
  
'So you killed him?' She sighed, 'How diplomatic of you.'  
  
SOMETIMES I THINK IT MAY NOT HAVE BEEN A GOOD IDEA TO FEED YOU ALL MY DARKEST SECRETS. Tom told her, IT APPEARS YOU KNOW ME TOO WELL.  
  
'I think the worst part is that I know all of these things,' She replied, 'And I'm still in love with you.'  
  
Hagrid stroked the kneazle that sat on his lap idly while drinking the tea his host had offered him. They had known each other for years, but Hagrid was very careful when asking him for information. A good friendship could turn sour very quickly.  
  
"You been busy lately?" Samuel Grantings asked.  
  
"Yeah, Dumbledore's got me on a special mission." Hagrid told him, "Dead important. Not doin' too well ter tell the truth."  
  
"Dumbledore's trust you wi' anythin' he would." Granting nodded, "If 'e thinks you can do it, I trust him."  
  
"Well it ain't been easy, I tell yeh that." The half giant shook his head, "Troopin' all over the ruddy country looking fer a kid I don't even like."  
  
"Who would that be then?" The older man asked, "Jus' out of interest."  
  
"Lucius Malfoy's son." Hagrid growled, "Him and some other kid I think."  
  
"Would 'is name be Draco?" Granting's raised his bushy grey eyebrows.  
  
"Tell me yeh've seen 'im Sam." Hagrid whispered, "Or ave 'eard bout him."  
  
"'e was 'ere." Grantings admitted, "'im and some girl. Didn't get a good feeling off either of 'em."  
  
Grantings, years ago, had wished on his Genie for the ability to read people's auras. It was something that had come in handy.  
  
"The boy was bad enough, lot's of bad things goin' on in 'is head, but the girl..." He shook his head, "Evil. Jus' rolled off her in waves, like. You Know Who couldn't be worse."  
  
"Did you get a name?" Hagrid asked.  
  
"Yeah, yeah I got a name." He nodded, "Ginny Weasley, it was. Dark haired girl, tall."  
  
"The cheek." The huge man suddenly looked sad and small, "I knew Ginny Weasley, sweetest lil' girl you could ever meet. Feisty but sweet. She died a few months back in the Diagon Alley attack. Tiny lil' red head, she was. And no Weasley would go round with a Malfoy. The cheek of that girl, disgracing lil' Ginny's name. Ah, poor lil' Ginny."  
  
"If I'd of known..." Grantings shook his head, "They wanted to use my Genie. Didn't like the idea of 'em getting their 'ands on somethin' that powerful, so I tol' 'em I gambled it away."  
  
"Did yeh ask 'em where they were 'eaded?" Hagrid asked.  
  
"Nah, wish I 'ad now." He shrugged, "Let 'em stay 'ere fer the night then sent 'em off sharpish. Funny thing though, Ezra didn't seem ter mind the girl. Kneazles are normally good at tellin' the bad from the good."  
  
"Funny thing." Hagrid agreed, "Funny thing indeed."  
  
As the weeks went on the weather went from freezing to even colder. Draco and Ginny were forced to cast constant warming spells to stop themselves from freezing to death. The Elves, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind the cold, doing nothing more to warm themselves then wearing slightly thicker garments. The Elf which Draco trained with, who's name was not actually Bob, but Zakkai, often laughed at Draco when he came to the training sessions bundled up in about five layers.  
  
"It's bloody freezing." He muttered, picking up an Elfish broad sword, "I can barely fell my fingers."  
  
"Friend Draco!" Zakkai laughed, "You should know better than to admit your weaknesses!"  
  
"I have no weaknesses." Was all Draco could say in reply, before they started their routine.  
  
Ginny often stopped by to watch him train, but today she was visiting Mapp and baby Ginni. With human babies, the child aged quickly within the first few weeks, but Elfish children aged incredibly slowly, and there was no visible change in her appearance.  
  
"Do you think," Ginny asked quietly, as Ginni was asleep, "That we'd be allowed to stay here forever?"  
  
"Do you want to?" Mapp asked.  
  
"We don't have anywhere else to go." She explained, "We'd make ourselves useful. Draco is getting to be a really good fighter, and I could help you look after Ginni. I could be her maid or something."  
  
"It would cause great happiness if you were to stay, but it would not be good." Mapp said truthfully, "You and Draco are young, you must see the world. You must fall in love."  
  
"I've seen enough of the world." Ginny said bitterly, "It's mostly vile and corrupt, full of dark wizards. And love? Not turning out to be much better."  
  
"You have not found the right one." The Elf assured her, "Love will be sweet and happy. With Nemiah, it was sweet and happy."  
  
Ginny said nothing. She wanted to believe Mapp, she really did, but it didn't help that the Elf had been in love, and her love had been torn from her in violence and blood.  
  
Fawkes sat by the young owl, listening to it talk. Owls had the best memory of all birds, but unfortunately they were also the biggest gossips. But Fawkes was patient, he nodded, listening to all the owl's meaningless talk, waiting for something relevant to come up. When it did, he thanked the owl, before continuing with his journey.  
  
Hermione gave a huge yawn, stretching her arms out wide and sitting up. A week ago she and her friend had left Hogwarts to go on Christmas holidays, and today she was waking up at five thirty in the morning in the Leaky cauldron. Blaise, apparently, had woken up several moments earlier, and was climbing out of her own bed.  
  
"Mornin." She mumbled, trying to smooth down her normally long sleek her. Hermione, who's hair was never sleek, didn't bother. She smiled cheerfully at the other girl, and received a glare in return, "Not a mornin person." She grumbled.  
  
"Obviously." Hermione replied, "I'm really excited, you know? I know this is all about helping find Malfoy, but I'm also really looking forward to hearing Noginski speak."  
  
"Why couldn't I share a room with Harry again?" Blaise asked and she pulled on her robes.  
  
"Because that would mean I'd have to share a room with Ron." Hermione explained, looking slightly fearful, "And I'm not-"  
  
"Ready? Yeah, yeah." The other girl shook her head; "You wouldn't have even had to have slept with him. Doesn't mean me and Harry cant..."  
  
"Really." She shook her head, disapproving. Blaise just grinned.  
  
The two girls, once dressed and washed, made their way down to the pub to find the boys waiting for them, bleary eyed, looking dressed but not washed.  
  
"Would it have killed you to have scrubbed up a little?" Blaise asked Harry, pretending to smell him and then pinching her nose closed.  
  
"...Just a little cleaning spell, Ron." Hermione was pleading, waving her wand around.  
  
"No Hermione, don't point that thing at me." He objected.  
  
"What about you Harry?" She asked hopefully, "I'm really very good at them, I use them when I'm in a rush. They're no substitute for a good bath of course but..."  
  
"I think I'll pass." He said, agreeing with Ron, "Don't really like the idea of your wand cleaning me."  
  
"Neither do I." Blaise agreed, looking suspicious.  
  
"Honestly." Hermione shook her head, disbelieving.  
  
"Well, looks like you're all here." Came a voice from behind them. It was, of course, Amelia Grigg, looking perfectly composed and not at all like it was six in the morning, "We'll eat once we get to the Hotel. Shall we get going?"  
  
With Hermione smiling brightly, Blaise looking slightly grumpy and the two boys still looking asleep, the four students followed their Professor through the streets of Diagon Alley, towards the Floo Hub.  
  
Lucius Malfoy and Damien Zabini sat in Lucius's study, hunched over the desk. On the desk were several objects. There were a few maps, a few amulets and a very big globe.  
  
"I'm almost a hundred percent sure that they're not in Ireland." Zabini said after a while, "There are a few magical disturbances with unknown origins, but that's normally to be expected."  
  
"Yes, yes." Lucius nodded, "It occurred to me that they might be in France. They might have gone to visit those centaurs I told you about before. But if they had they'll probably be dead. Centaurs would never let the girl live with Tom Riddle inside her. And besides, they're following that damn French Wizard, and he'd certainly want them killed. I wonder if it's worth the effort?"  
  
"I doubt it." The small dark man said after some thought, "Not when it's far more likely that they're in Spain. Lots of magical disturbances of unknown origin there."  
  
"It disturbs me how well the two of them are doing." Lucius confessed, "Evading capture for so long. I'd have expected them to have screwed up by now but...Well, the girl has had plenty of experiences in evading danger. If we don't manage to bring out Tom Riddle, I'll enjoy killing her. Her and my bloody son."  
  
Once they had arrived at the Floo Hub Amelia handed them a pink ticket each; "These are your return tickets." She explained, "Just show them to the assistant and they'll let you go through. They're only good for going to the Hotel and back, so don't try and sneak off anywhere." She grinned slightly cruelly, "And just to make sure you use this time constructively, I expect reports on Noginski when you get back."  
  
They all groaned and turn to glare at Hermione. It had, after all, been her idea to come.  
  
"In place of your original homework's." Amelia added kindly, and they all smiled in relief, "Ok, so you should go now, so you're not late. Once there give them this," She handed a note to Hermione, "And they'll feed you and give you instructions about getting to Poltrick. It's in Russian, so don't try and read it."  
  
And with that she left, waving goodbye.  
  
They walked over to a Floo grate and handed the assistant their tickets. He checked them all thoroughly before giving them instructions as to where they flooed to.  
  
Once they arrived they showed the woman at the desk the note they had been given, and in very bad English she directed them to a table where they were able to order food.  
  
She was, in actual fact, the exact same woman who Ginny and Draco had dealt with on their visit, and she was the same woman who had betrayed them to the Death Eaters. If they had known this, then perhaps Ron and Harry would not have gazed so appreciatively after her. Perhaps they ought to have not anyway, especially as both their girlfriends sat at the table, neither of them looking very happy with them.  
  
After breakfast the four of them gathered in the entrance hall along with the many other guests who were arriving. Some looked nervous, others looked confident, and other looked down right shifty. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Blaise stayed close together until the announcement was made that they should all touch the huge castle statue.  
  
"Must be a Portkey." Hermione whispered.  
  
"No kid-" But Ron never got to finish his sentence, as just then the Portkey activated. They all felt the uncomfortable feeling in their navel, and when they became aware of their surroundings again, they found themselves in the Entrance Hall of a castle.  
  
Poltrick Castle to be specific.  
  
Ginny stood knee deep in the snow, watching Draco swing his broad sword around impressively.  
  
"You're getting very good." She told him.  
  
"Getting good?" he scoffed, "I went pass good a long time ago!"  
  
"Shame you missed then." She teased, "You should have taken a right at 'not bad' and then a left at 'getting there'. I'm afraid you're stuck at 'getting good' indefinitely."  
  
"Ok, that's it Weasley!" He said, brandishing his sword, "You have hurled your last insult at me. Prepare to die!"  
  
A snowball hit him in the side of his face. Dropping his sword he charged her and managed to tackle her to the floor.  
  
"I believe I have you trapped." He told her, their faces closed.  
  
"That's where you're wrong Malfoy." She whispered, "I have you trapped."  
  
The Elves, smiling, turned away from the embracing couple.  
  
The four teenagers sat, listening to the lecture. Harry and Hermione sat leaning forward, slightly open mouthed, while Ron and Blaise fidgeted and yawned. They all worse a set of Transo-Phones  
  
"Look at how the time has flown!" Noginski said eventually, smiling, "Well, at least it has for me. I'm sorry to confess that I never tire of listening to myself talk. But you must all be hungry, so you'll be delighted to hear that lunch should be ready."  
  
The group followed the charismatic Professor into the Dining Hall, and as everyone was taking their seats Hermione, followed by the others, made their way over to where Noginski sat.  
  
"I'm really sorry about this Sir." She said, "But we really need to talk to you about something."  
  
"I'll be happy to answer any questions you have." He said, "After my students presentation."  
  
"We need to talk to you now." She said more insistently.  
  
"I'm very sorry Young Lady." His voice now sounded annoyed, "But I will not discuss anything until after my students presentation. Now if you please? They're about to start."  
  
The brown haired girl gave a sigh of frustration and then stood in silence while the students gave their presentation. She waited for him to take a sip of his drink before asking again; feeling that this may make him slightly better disposed towards her.  
  
"Please Professor Noginski, it's urgent that we talk to you right now." She said quietly.  
  
"Well go on, what do you have to say?" he asked slightly testily.  
  
"In private." She added. He turned around to look at her fully, then caught sight of the others behind her. He looked at them all for a very long time.  
  
"Who are you?" He asked after a moment.  
  
"I'm Hermione Granger." She told him, "These are my friends, Ron, Harry and Blaise. Blaise Zabini."  
  
"Does your father know you're here?" he asked sharply.  
  
"Of course not." She snapped, "I know you two know each other. That's partly what we're here about."  
  
"Professor Noginski." Hermione took a deep breath, "We're here to talk to you about Draco Malfoy."  
  
A.N. Ok, I'm changing the name of this fic coz I hate the name it has at the moment. Anyone got any suggestions? I'm really bad at coming up with names so I really need your help. Just put any suggestions in your reviews. By the way, this fic is almost over. I estimate only four more chapters to go. I may write a sequel.  
  
Thanks to:  
  
Ohepelss Oramtnci: Ah, love is a fickle thing...Ginny's deep scars and psychological problems make her a very...Ah, screw it. She's falling in love because I'm making her!  
  
Damia-Queen Of The Gypsi's: I think Mapp must be my favourite original character. And yet I abuse her so badly.  
  
Magic Crystal Rose: yes, let us all cry for Nemiah.  
  
Doyle'sangel: yes, I have written a lot, haven't I!  
  
Readingfreak742: Well, I have the end of my story all planned and it's coming up. It gets way more dramatic before hand though. Hope you continue to enjoy. 


	19. Revelations

Disclaimer: Not mine  
  
Dedications: To my Beta, Dom

RevelationsNoginski stared at her for a long moment, and then took a sip of him drink.  
  
"I'm afraid..." he began but Harry cut him off.  
  
"Don't lie to us." He snapped, "We're trying to save his life here."  
  
"And what was your name again?" He asked, his eyes narrowed.  
  
"Harry." He answered, and then for good measure lifted his fringe and added, "Harry Potter."  
  
"Oh." He looked at his drink, which he swirled in his hand, and then sighed, "Could you stay behind after the others leave?"  
  
"I don't think so." Hermione confessed, "We're sort of on a school trip. They might be keeping an eye on us, trying to make sure we weren't just using the money to go gallivanting around."  
  
"If they ask, you could say you persuaded me to take part in a private interview." He told her, "I'll make you get home safe. I can't talk about it now. After lunch, you can ask me whatever questions you have. Now go, sit, eat."  
  
They left Noginski's side and found a place to sit. After a while Ron got into a conversation with a wizard sitting opposite them about Quidditch and Blaise began talking to a fashion designer. He kept on telling her she could be a model, and she was turning pinker and pinker. Harry was looking more and more annoyed.  
  
"Harry." Hermione whispered, "I need to talk to you."  
  
"In a minute." He said, glaring at the fashion designer, "I just want to-"  
  
"Harry, I need to talk to you now." He finally picked up on the urgency in her voice, and nodded. They excused themselves, saying that they were going to compare notes on Noginski. Ron and Blaise sighed, and then turned back to their conversations.  
  
"Shouldn't she be a little more jealous?" Harry asked as they walked away.  
  
"Harry, listen, this is important." She whispered.  
  
"What is it Hermione?" He asked finally.  
  
"I think I know who the Vessel is." She told him.  
  
"Why are you just telling me?" He sounded bemused.  
  
"I don't want to get Ron's hopes up, in case I'm wrong." She explained, "I can't make him go through all that again."  
  
"Hermione, who is it?" But suspicion was already dawning.  
  
"I think its Ginny."

Fawkes was almost certain now that he knew where they were. He had talked to hundreds of animals, most of who knew nothing and those who did knew very little. But he was getting closer. More and more animals knew what he was looking for. But getting there would be hard. There were a lot of things on the way that had a taste for Phoenix's.

Dumbledore had read Hagrid's report over several times. Nothing in it gave his cause for hope, and his suspicions had almost certainly been proved true.  
  
He could act. He could intervene. But if he did, it could mean revealing to the Death Eaters the locations of the children. But abstaining from helping them could mean that they fell into Death Eater hands anyway.  
  
He stood up from his desk and walked over to the one photo in the room that was not of an Old Headteacher. A smiling brown haired woman sat in a garden swing, waving at him in a photo frame on a low shelf.  
  
"Salena, I need you." He whispered, "I don't know what to do."  
  
But Salena Dumbledore just sat and smiled on the swings, forever young, forever happy, never knowing that death was just around the corner for her.

For a moment his heart was as high as he could ever remember. For a moment he believed her. Yes, yes, Ginny is alive; Ginny is somewhere out here. But then his heart plummeted, and it felt like loosing her all over again.  
  
"No Hermione, don't say that." He shook his head, "It's impossible, she's dead. It kills me to say it, but she's dead."  
  
"This is why I didn't want to tell Ron." She shook her head, "Harry, I don't know for sure, I have no real proof to back it up, but it works! It could so easily be her. Listen to me Harry-"  
  
"No." He backed away, "I can't hear this, I can't. I thought for a moment...but if I let myself believe and she's not...she was like a sister to me Hermione! I loved her like she was my little sister. Don't make me loose her again."  
  
"Harry Potter!" She snapped, "Do you think I don't know? She was one of my best friends Harry, my only real girl friend. You and Ron were great, but it was always Ginny I went to with my secrets. She was the one I told about Victor. And she used to come to me with hers. So I know, Harry, I know. But if she's alive? If she's...Please just listen to what I have to say."  
  
"I...go on." He was shaking, and his bottle green eyes looked close to tears.  
  
"We know Lucius Malfoy was involved in the attack on Diagon Alley, nearly every one does." Hermione practically spat Lucius's name, "We also know he's involved with the vessel. Ginny's body is the only body they couldn't find. Just a few clumps of her hair." At that point her voice choked a bit but she continued regardless, "The vessel is someone who was once possessed by someone, and their body is being used to channel that person's spirit. Ginny was possessed by Tom Riddle! Blaise's father always referred to the Vessel as a she, and now we know that he actually meant a female."  
  
"Hermione..." Harry was shaking his head, "Don't you understand?"  
  
"What?" She looked puzzled.  
  
"If you're right, and I'm not sure if you are, then it means that Ginny's been possessed by Tom Riddle." He explained, "She's still lost to us."  
  
"I didn't think..." Hermione looked stricken, and then suddenly fierce, "No! If she's been possessed, then we can reverse it. We can bring her back. Death is permanent, possession isn't."  
  
"I don't know..." He still looked like he was about to cry.  
  
"You don't have to believe me." She said finally, "We'll find out from Noginski soon enough. I just wanted to give you some warning. Don't tell Ron, ok? If I'm not right..."  
  
Harry didn't say anything, and together they walked back to the table. A moment later a klaxon sounded, and they were lead back to the Entrance Hall, where most the guests left, all except the four Hogwarts students.  
  
"I can't believe that guy wants to sign me as a model." Blaise was almost singing with joy, "Harry, you'll have a model girlfriend! This is so amazing. My mother was a model when she was really young but she upset a fashion designer and he ruined her career. She'll be so pleased!"  
  
"Blaise, we have slightly more important matters at hand." Hermione snapped, "Come on."  
  
The four of them walked over to Professor Noginski, who looked them all over thoroughly.  
  
"Well, follow me." He said eventually, and led them into a small room, "Now what exactly do you want to ask me about Draco Malfoy?"  
  
"Actually, we want to know more about..." Hermione actually left a dramatic pause, "The Vessel."  
  
His eyes flared open and he backed away, sliding into a chair.  
  
"The Vessel." He repeated, "You want to know about The Vessel."  
  
"We want to know who it is." Ron explained, "And where Draco Malfoy and whoever they are have run off to."  
  
"How did you come to know this much?" He asked.  
  
"I've been eavesdropping on my father a lot." Blaise admitted.  
  
"And Hermione's been using her super brain to find out about things." Ron added, "I provided one source of research, and Harry here just hung around. He's completely useless."  
  
"Hey!" Harry exclaimed.  
  
"I don't think it's even relevant how we know." Hermione said finally, "Just that we know. But we need to know more. We need to find them."  
  
"I am sorry Miss Granger, but I will not tell you." Noginski said finally, "I will not betray them."  
  
"We're trying to help them!" Blaise exclaimed, "We got ourselves all the way to Russia to see you so that you could help us! We know you helped come up with the method of the Vessel, and we'll turn you into the Ministry unless you help us."  
  
"You must believe me when I say that I tried my hardest to prevent the research from being used in practice." He said slowly, "It was supposed to be theoretical. I destroyed all the research I had when I found out what they were planning, but they already had what they needed. I truly did try."  
  
"You can make amends for it now." Hermione said quietly, "By telling us what we need to know."  
  
"I've already helped them." Noginski said after a moment, "They came to me a while ago. I couldn't help them as I wished I could, but I gave them instructions as to where to go. I haven't heard from them since."  
  
"And was the Vessel possessed by...whoever had possessed them?" Blaise asked.  
  
"No." he shook his head, "The process had not been complete when Draco rescued them from the experiment. They are in an in-between state. If I was sure you were here to help you, I would perhaps tell you, but I can't be sure."  
  
"Please sir, you have to tell us who it is." Harry pleaded, "You have to trust us. We need to know."  
  
"One single good reason is all I'd need, but until then." He shook his head.  
  
"One single...? One single good reason?" Harry's eyes were furious, and he stood up from the seat he had taken, "I'll give you a single reason!"  
  
"Harry, no!" Hermione shouted, "I wasn't sure! Don't say anything!"  
  
"Here's your bloody reason!" Harry yelled, "Ron has a right to know!"  
  
There was a confused silence.  
  
"I do?" Ron asked, bewildered.  
  
"Ron?" Noginski said in confusion, looking at the red haired boy.  
  
"Yes, Ron!" Harry shouted, and Hermione burst out crying, "Ron Weasley!"  
  
"Weasley." Noginski's voice was hollow as he turned to look at Ron, seeing him, it seemed for the first time, "You are Ron Weasley."  
  
It was a statement, but Ron answered anyway, "Yeah, that's me..."  
  
"It's true, isn't it." Hermione whispered, wiping her eyes, "I was right."  
  
"So tell us, Professor Noginski," Harry's voice was calm now, but cold, "Is Ginny Weasley alive?"  
  
"What!" Ron shouted.Ginny felt strangely warm. Ok, so she was lying in deep snow, and had one of the coldest people she knew lying next to her, but she felt warm and fuzzy and slightly drunk, even though she hadn't been drinking.  
  
"Malfoy." She whispered.  
  
"Yeah." He whispered back.  
  
"We're happy here, aren't we?" She asked.  
  
"I can't remember ever being happier." He confessed, "For too people on the run for our lives, we're doing well for ourselves."  
  
"I miss my family a lot." She admitted, "But if we never got to go home, I think I could live here. You could become a warrior Elf, I could learn more healing magic from the Elves, I think that would suite us."  
  
"I think I miss my mother." Draco said after a moments thought, "She was always very nice to me, I liked her. She's not exactly like I thought she was. And I know she's missing me. I don't want her to be sad."  
  
"Is that the most you can ever feel for anyone?" She asked, "Like? You've never loved anyone?"  
  
"No." He told her, "Well, maybe my father, a little. Or maybe that was just respect. I wouldn't know how to tell if I was in love."  
  
"I don't know how to explain it." Ginny said, "I think loves different every time."  
  
"So how do you know you're in love?" He asked, "If it's different every time, how do you know it's the same thing?"  
  
"I...don't know." She admitted, "You know, that all there is to it."  
  
"How do you know you're in love with Riddle?" He asked, and she thought she could hear some bitterness in his voice.  
  
"I couldn't explain it if I had all the time in the world." She told him, "But it's a very disturbing feeling, being in love with an evil psychopath."  
  
"Well, in your defence, he's a very reasonable evil psychopath." Draco said helpfully.  
  
"Yeah, because that makes a whole world of difference."

"What!" Ron shouted.  
  
"I wonder if it is still counts as betrayal if you do it in the person's best interests." Noginski said quietly, "Yes, Ginny Weasley is alive, and the last time I saw her she was well. She is the Vessel."  
  
"She's alive." Ron whispered, "She's alive, she's alive." Suddenly he looked up at Hermione, "You knew. You knew and you didn't tell me that Ginny was alive."  
  
"I didn't know." Hermione explained, "I suspected. I didn't want to tell you in case I was wrong."  
  
"But you told Harry." He said, glancing over at his best friend, "You told him but you didn't tell me."  
  
"I just..." She shook her head, "I didn't want to get your hopes up, but I needed to tell someone. I knew Harry could take it."  
  
"Don't blame her Ron." Harry said, "I wouldn't want to carry that knowledge alone either."  
  
"She should have told me." Ron snapped.  
  
"Oh for god's sake." Blaise, who had been silent, suddenly spoke out; "She was trying to protect you, trying to stop you from going through all that pain all over again. So what if she told Harry? He's one of her best friends, isn't he? Why shouldn't she tell him? She's smart, don't question her motives."  
  
"Thank you Blaise." Hermione whispered, but the dark haired girl just shrugged.  
  
"Shouldn't we be moving on? Be happy for god's sake. Your friend's alive." She turned to Noginski; "She's with Draco right?"  
  
"Yes, they are together." He nodded, "But it's been weeks since I've heard from them. I sent them to my friend's house in hopes that he could help them but he told me they never turned up."  
  
"And it's definitely Ginny who's in control?" Harry asked, "Not Tom Riddle?"  
  
"It is impossible for Riddle to take over without Ginny's permission." Noginski assured them.  
  
"I don't get it." Ron said quietly, "If she's alive, then why didn't she come home?"  
  
"She was afraid of the Dementors Kiss." The Professor explained, "She believed that, in order to destroy Riddle, the Ministry may have sent her to the Dementors. Draco stayed with her out of fear of his father and a strange sense of obligation to Ginny. He was, after all, the one who rescued her from the experiment Lucius Malfoy and Damien Zabini had her in."  
  
"I can't believe my father was involved in this." Blaise shook her head, "He's such a...idiot!"  
  
"He's a Death Eater." Harry said calmly, "You don't disobey Voldemort's orders." Blaise, Ron and Noginski shuddered, "he'd have probably killed your father and the rest of your family as an example."  
  
"That's the only reason my father joined up." She said sadly, "To keep me, my mother and my sisters safe."  
  
"That was almost commendable of him then." Noginski sighed, "he never struck me as a cruel or evil man. He was just...caught up in a world where casualties happen."  
  
"And Ginny was a casualty?" Ron asked.  
  
"She was one of the lucky ones." The professor told the boy, "She survived."  
  
"Is there anything you can tell us?" Hermione asked, "Anywhere they might have gone?"  
  
"They were going to France when I last saw them." Noginski answered, "But they'll have left by now. I can tell you their aliases though. They are going under the names of Nathaniel and Emily Bowcott, two cousins. They also have disguises. They appear as tall, dark haired older teenagers."  
  
"Thank you." The young girl smiled, "This is so...important."  
  
"It is my fault that they were put in danger in the first place." He replied, "I am doing what I can to make amends. Is that all?"  
  
"Yes, that's all." Hermione nodded, "We need to get back now."  
  
"You can use my special Floo grate; it will take you straight to Diagon Alley." He told them, "it's this way."

Ginny and Draco sat at a table with Mapp, eating dinner. The Elves were strictly vegetarians, and mainly ate plants raw, but were happy to make some sort of vegetable stew for the two humans. Mapp was explaining some of the Elves healing techniques.  
  
"Nectar from a plant that has survived a fire is good for burns." She said, "But not Monkshood. Too volatile. Do humans not know this?"  
  
"Not a lot of it." Ginny admitted, "We use a lot of healing charms. You do have to be good at Herbology and Potions to be a healer though. We use mandrakes a lot."  
  
"Mandrakes good, yes." Mapp nodded, "But very strong. Subtle medicines are better."  
  
"Weasley, if we ever get back to the Wizarding world, you're going to become one hell of a healer with all this knowledge." Draco yawned, "But why do I have to listen to it?"  
  
"This information could save your life one day." Ginny told him, "You'll be really annoyed if you're burning to death, and there's a flower that survived a fire right next to you, and you don't know how to use it."  
  
"I think I'll be slightly more annoyed about the fact that I'm burning to death." He insisted smirking, "It just seems like a higher priority."  
  
"Very funny." She poked out her tongue at him.  
  
"How very witty of you Weasley."  
  
"What I lack in wit I make up for in stubborn immaturity." She said proudly, smiling, "I think it adds to my charm."  
  
"And what charm would that be?" he asked.  
  
"When I get charm, it'll add to it." She assured him. He laughed, and a sort of truce was called.  
  
HOW VERY SWEET. Tom said inside her mind  
  
'Hey there! You haven't been talking very much lately.' She replied.  
  
I'VE BEEN BUILDING UP MY STRENGHT. He told her, LOOK OVER AT THE END OF THE TABLE.  
  
Obeying, she turned to look at the end of the table. The air shimmered for a moment, and then a solid form appeared.  
  
Ginny gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. Draco and Mapp looked at her strangely.  
  
"What is it friend Ginni?" Mapp asked.  
  
"Can you see him?" She asked.  
  
"See who?" Draco asked.  
  
"Tom." But she knew they couldn't. He sat at the end of the table, wearing a light green shirt and a small smile on his face.  
  
"You can see him?" The blond boy asked.  
  
"Yes, I can see him sitting at the end of the table." Draco stood up and walked over. He was standing through Tom.  
  
"Well, that's not very nice of him, is it?" Tom asked. It wasn't in that strange voice he used inside her head, slightly too loud. He sounded like he was sitting a few feet away; "They can't see me. But I can now see them through two eyes of my own. This body may be completely insubstantial, but at least it's mine."  
  
"Are you still connected to me?" She asked.  
  
"Yes." He nodded, "I can only exist in this form while I'm in the same room as you." He explained, "If I tried to leave the room, or if you did, I'd end up inside your mind again."  
  
She opened her mouth to ask him what would happen if they were outside, but she never got a chance to ask. There was a great deal of shouting outside and then a large golden bird flew through the door. A phoenix to be specific.  
  
"Fawkes!"  
  
A.N I've had some complaints about not separating my scene changes. Well, I have been, but they haven't been showing up on FF.net. I've been using triple stars but apparently they don't work. This chapter I'm using this sign . I hope it shows up. If not I'll have to try something else. Once I find something that works I'll replace all the chapters without the separating with updated versions.  
  
A.N.2 Still looking for name ideas. If you have any don't hesitate to tell me. Internal Struggle is a really corny name, so...  
  
Thanks to:  
  
Ohepelss Oramtnci: But I love to twist their emotions so! And he is a creep. He's evil. That's what happens.  
  
readingfreak742: Oh Well, thanks for complimenting the original name. Here's the new chapter!  
  
QueenDiablo: Oh! Helpful review! Thank you! I dunno, Internal Struggle is just so...corny!  
  
Moose: Hopefully this solves the separation problem. If it doesn't I'll have to try something else. Thanks for the compliment!


	20. Time To Go

Disclaimer: Not mine  
  
A.N.: Soz about the long time of no updating. Exams and stuff, very stressful. It's over now so updates should be quicker. We're nearing the end.  
  
III

Time To Go   
III

"What the bloody hell is that?" Draco cried, jumping back.  
  
"It's Fawkes!" Ginny shouted. Her heart, which was already pounding due to the arrival of Tom, felt like it was going to burst.  
  
"It's a phoenix!" He cried, pointing.  
  
"I know, he's Dumbledore's." Ginny explained, moving forward slowly, holding her hand out.  
  
"It could be any phoenix." Draco warned her, "Seriously, put your hand down."  
  
"Do not Worry, Virginia." Tom assured her, "I know Dumbledore's bird, that's him."  
  
Ginny's hand trembled for a moment, dropping an inch. Her eyes darted over to the half there person, and she felt a twinge of fear in her heart.  
  
"What is it, Virginia, don't you trust me?" He asked, innocently.  
  
"I don't trust you." She whispered, "But I know that's Fawkes." And with that she walked over to the golden bird.  
  
He had landed on the table, and was sitting there expectantly. Mapp had remained seated, and was looking at the bird with a great deal of interest.  
  
"He is good." Mapp told the approaching girl, "Has travelled much time to see you. He knows you."  
  
"I know you too Fawkes." She said, stroking the bird's head, "You saved my life when I was just a little girl."  
  
Fawkes looked her in the eye, understanding shining in the pools of blackness. Then he looked over to the end of the table, where Tom said, regarding the bird with dislike. Fawkes' eyes narrowed, and it gave out an overwhelming squawk, and glowed faintly orange.  
  
"He can see Tom." Ginny told Mapp and Draco. Mapp nodded, but Draco shook his head.  
  
"This is bad, this is...bad." He repeated.  
  
"Why?" She asked, looking confused, "Fawkes will help us. He helped Harry save me when I was in the Chamber of Secrets."  
  
"He's Dumbledore's bird." Draco explained, "He'll help Dumbledore find us. Then it's a quick trip to the Dementors for you, and a one way ticket into my Father's grasps for me. Sound fun?"  
  
"What can we do, then?" Ginny asked, "Kill him? Make sure he never has the chance to return to Dumbledore? Don't be stupid."  
  
"Then we'll have to keep him with us." The blond boy said finally, "He can't be allowed to go back to Dumbledore, so he'll have to stay with us."  
  
Fawkes regarded Ginny carefully. If he understood the conversation, he made no sign of it, but his dark eyes did keep on flickering back to Tom.  
  
"He doesn't like me." Tom commented.  
  
"Not surprising." She snapped.  
  
"What?" Draco asked.  
  
"Not you, Tom." Ginny explained.  
  
"What did he say?"  
  
"It doesn't matter." She was growing more and more frustrated with this situation.  
  
"I want to know." Draco insisted.  
  
"Forget it!" She shouted finally, "This is all getting too...too much! Mapp, you can understand Fawkes?"  
  
"Not by words." The Elf explained, "But some things shine through. Like understanding."  
  
"Can he understand us?" Ginny asked.  
  
"Same. Like understanding, but different." Mapp told her.  
  
"Will he stay with us?"  
  
"He came to protect you, stay with you." Mapp nodded, "He will not attempt escape."  
  
"That's good." Ginny nodded, "So Malfoy, no trying to kill Fawkes. Tom, get back in my head."  
  
"No." He replied, lazily looking at his nails, "I like having a body."  
  
"Fine, but don't speak." She sighed. "Mapp, is Ginni ok?"  
  
"Ginni sleeps." Mapp assured her, "But the Auveray must be told about the phoenix."  
  
"Malfoy-?" Ginny asked.  
  
"No, he doesn't like me." Draco said quickly.  
  
"And you're no bloody use." She said, glaring at Tom.  
  
"Hey!" Draco said, offended.  
  
"I'm not saying a word." Tom told her.  
  
"Yes, that's right." She nodded.  
  
"I'm not useless." Draco sulked.  
  
"What? Oh, not you Malfoy!" Ginny assured him, "I was talking to Tom."  
  
"Well don't, it's getting confusing." He told her, "Now, shouldn't you get going? The Auveray needs to be informed about our guest."  
  
III

Ron felt a scream rising up in his throat. He swallowed it. It had become a usual feeling since he had returned home from Poltrick. He, Harry and Hermione sat at the Weasleys kitchen table while Mrs Weasley made dinner. The scream rose again, and once again he swallowed it. All he wanted to do was tell his mother and father and brothers that Ginny was alive, that she was ok, almost.  
  
"Are you ok Ron?" Mrs Weasley asked, "You look a little green."  
  
"Russian food didn't agree with me." He managed. Harry and Hermione nodded, their lips tight.  
  
"Well, they do have some strange meals." She agreed, "Oh Harry, I spoke to Remus while you were gone, he wanted to know whether you'd like to see his new house tomorrow."  
  
"I'm not sure-" Harry began, but Ron cut him off.  
  
"Don't worry about it." He said, "Go with Lupin."  
  
"But..." Harry trailed off.  
  
"We have plenty of time to talk." Ron told him, "It hasn't...sunk in...yet. I need a little while."  
  
"Hm? Noginski had that much of an impression on you?" Mrs Weasley asked, "Well, he is an amazing man. He and Arthur used to be quite close, you know?"  
  
They said nothing. Hermione excused herself from the table and went up to their room. Harry and Ron gave her ten minutes before following. When they got into the room she was pretending to be asleep, and they said nothing as they climbed into their beds.  
  
III

When Ginny finally returned from her meeting with the Auveray, she found Draco asleep, and Fawkes sitting inside their hut. With nothing else to do, she went to sleep as well.  
  
When she awoke, Draco was already up; he was sitting down, looking through his bag.  
  
"Morning Malfoy." She mumbled, sitting up.  
  
"Morning." He said back, not looking at her.  
  
"Do you want to know what the Auveray said?" Ginny asked.  
  
"No." Draco replied, "I really don't care what he had to say."  
  
"He said that Fawkes' arrival was a good thing." She said anyway, "he said that Fawkes would protect us in ways that the Elves couldn't."  
  
"Yeah, they'll have a bit of trouble protecting us if we're not here." Draco agreed.  
  
"What?" She asked, confused.  
  
"What did he have to say about our dear Tommy?" He asked, ignoring her question.  
  
"What do you mean, 'if we're not here'?" Ginny pressed, "Explain."  
  
"We're leaving. Now about Riddle?"  
  
"We are not leaving!" She exclaimed, "We have nowhere to go."  
  
"I'd really like to know about what the Auver-arse had to say about Riddle." Draco snapped sarcastically, "We can discuss where we're going after."  
  
"He said that Tom was just as powerless as usual, and that although it'll be annoying, I'll have to put up with it because he can't fix it." She explained, "And we're not going anywhere."  
  
"We can't stay here." He told her, "We're supposed to be untraceable, but somehow that bird managed to find us. I'm not sure what that says to you, but to me it says we've been here too long."  
  
"But we can't just leave!" She ran a hand through her messy hair, "Draco, we have nowhere to go. And we can't leave Mapp."  
  
"Mapp isn't on the run from Death Eaters, the other Elves can look after her." He stood up, looking at her, "And as for having nowhere to go? Well, that doesn't matter, because we have to go somewhere. Or do you want to be stuck with Riddle for the rest of your life?"  
  
"You know I don't." She snapped.  
  
"Do I?" Draco asked, "Even when I couldn't hear you talking to him, I always knew. We'd be sitting together, and you'd be really happy, and I'd know you were talking to him. So maybe you do want to be stuck with him for the rest of your life."  
  
"He's a murderer!" She shouted, her eyes filling with tears, "He almost killed me! How can you say that..."  
  
"Because you're in love with him." He told her, "You're in love with him."  
  
"And why does that bother you?" She asked angrily.  
  
"Because you're not in love with me!" He shouted.  
  
"You're not in love with me either!"  
  
"That's because I don't know how!" His cheeks were flushed pink, "I don't know how to fall in love! But you do. I know that you're capable of falling in love, but you don't love me."  
  
"But that's not my fault!" Her eyes looked into his pleadingly, and she took a step towards him, "Malfoy...I fell in love with Tom, and I almost died because of it. So forgive me for not falling for any boy who's nice to me. Not that you're ever really nice to me for that matter."  
  
"Forget it Weasley, it doesn't matter." He shrugged bitterly, "I'm leaving, and I'm going back to England. You can come with me, or you can stay with the Elves. But the Elves won't help you get rid of Riddle."  
  
"Malfoy..." Ginny reached out to take his hand, but he pulled away. She lowered her hand, but spoke on regardless; "Of course I'll come with you. I love Tom, and I know you hate me for it, but I do want to get rid of him."  
  
"Then pack your bags and get ready to leave." He walked out of their hut, and Ginny was left with only Fawkes. Fawkes, and Tom.  
  
"Don't worry little bird." Tom whispered, smiling, "He doesn't hate you for loving me, or at least not nearly as much as I do."  
  
When Ginny finished crying, she packed her bags, never looking at the dark haired boy.  
  
III

Harry left early in the morning. Lupin had bought a new house, which, he had told Harry, he could use any time he liked.  
  
"You sure you don't want me to stay?" He asked Ron quietly before he left.  
  
"I'm sure." Ron promised, "I need a bit of time."  
  
"I'll be back tonight." Harry told him, "If you want to talk then, we can. We have to talk about it soon, we have to find them."  
  
"I know." The red haired boy nodded, "Tonight, I swear. Have fun today, you might not ever have to go back to the Dursleys."  
  
"I can wish." Harry grinned, and they parted.  
  
Hermione was sitting on Ron's bed when he returned to his room. She had said her goodbyes to Harry before Ron.  
  
"Is he gone?" She asked quietly.  
  
"Just left." Ron told her.  
  
"You're angry at me."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"I wanted to tell you!" She burst out; "I wanted to tell you so badly it hurt! But I couldn't do that to you, if I was wrong..."  
  
"You're never wrong." He snapped, "You know that. Every theory, every idea you've had since you were eleven years old has been almost perfect."  
  
"Almost perfect wasn't good enough, I had to know for sure." She pleaded, "What if I'd told you, and been wrong? If I told you Ginny might have been alive and it turned out that she was just as dead as Neville, or Cedric Diggory? Would you have forgiven me?"  
  
"Yes." Ron told her, "Because at least I'd have known that I could trust you. I'd have known that you'd tell me something I had a right to know. But instead you told Harry."  
  
"I had to-"  
  
"You told Harry!" Ron was shaking with anger, his hands clenched into fists, "You told Harry! My best friend!"  
  
"He's my best friend too!" She shouted back, "Or did you think I was all yours now seeing as we're going out?"  
  
"I thought that being in relationship meant that we were honest with each other." He replied, "But now...What else are you keeping from me?"  
  
"I'm not keeping anything else from you." Hermione whispered.  
  
"I wouldn't know if you were lying though." Ron pointed out, "I didn't even once realise that you knew something and weren't telling us. So I really wouldn't be able to tell if you had a million other secrets, secrets as big as the one about Ginny. I can't trust you at all."  
  
"But I don't." She promised, pleading desperately, "I haven't got any other secrets Ron, please believe me. I know I should have told you, but I was so scared that I'd just end up hurting you."  
  
"Maybe it would have been ok." He told her, sitting down next to her. He seemed much calmer; "Maybe it would have been ok, if you hadn't told anybody. But you told Harry. How long have you two been talking about this behind my back?"  
  
"I told him five minutes before you found out, I swear." She told him, "I needed someone else to know, or I wouldn't have been able to get it out of Noginski. It was Harry or Blaise, and I chose Harry."  
  
"How long did you know that the Vessel was Ginny?" Ron asked.  
  
"A few weeks." She told him.  
  
"And you kept it from me." He shook his head, "All that time. I really...I really care about you, you know? You were there for me when I really needed you."  
  
"Ron..." Her voice was fearful.  
  
"But maybe...maybe I'm over needing you now. I still care for you, and I don't ever want us to stop being close, but I think-"  
  
"No!" She exclaimed, "No, that's not fair! I kept it from you to protect you! You can't break up with me over that! I'm not over needing you yet! I really need you!"  
  
"And I needed you to tell me the truth, I needed you to tell me that Ginny was alive and well, and you let me down." Ron didn't look at her when he said this, his eyes were fixed on his hands, "We were friends before, we still can be."  
  
"Ron, I love you." She whispered, tears flowing down her cheeks, "I don't think I can be just friends with you."  
  
"But I can't be anything more." He explained.  
  
"Ron, do you love me?" Hermione asked. He said nothing, still looking at his hands, "Tell me you don't love me then."  
  
"No." Ron shook his head; "I won't lie to you. I won't keep things from you. I do love you. But you don't love me. Because if you did, you wouldn't have kept this from me."  
  
"I kept it from you because I love you." She explained, but her voice was defeated, "Ron, you mean more to me than anything in the world, I don't know what I'm going to do."  
  
"Help me find Ginny?" He asked.  
  
"Of course." They sat in silence. Ron's body felt numb, a small part of him couldn't believe what he'd just done. Hermione also felt nothing, but not out of numbness. She felt nothing because there was nothing. Without Ron there to fill her with joy, anger, pride and love, she was empty and alone.  
  
III

Transformed into her disguise, Ginny hugged Mapp, and kissed baby Ginni on the forehead.  
  
"I'll come back and visit." She promised, "But Malfoy's right, we do have to go."  
  
"I understand Friend Ginni." Mapp assured her, "But still I fear for you. Be safe, stay with Friend Draco, he protects you."  
  
"Yeah, I guess he does." Ginny nodded, "And we have Fawkes now, although god knows what we're going to do with him. Phoenixes aren't very inconspicuous."  
  
"Be safe Friend Ginni." Mapp urged her.  
  
"I will." She hugged the Elf one last time "Be safe Friend Mapp."  
  
They parted, and Draco and Ginny began the walk to the nearest town.  
  
"Is his Royal Arsiness around?" Draco asked a little way into the journey.  
  
"No, he's not around, I don't think he can leave my mind if we're outside." She explained, her voice slightly clipped, "Something about rooms."  
  
The rest of the journey was silent, and the arrived in the small wizarding community of the town. Ginny quickly checked the Floo Hub, and found a letter waiting for her.  
  
"Who's it from?" Draco asked.  
  
"Aidan, of course." She replied, but actually it wasn't 'of course'. Both teenagers had forgotten about him, "He's invited us to a Christmas party. Do you want to go?"  
  
"When you say 'us' you mean 'you', right?" He said.  
  
"Slightly." She admitted.  
  
"Then I'll go, only because it'll annoy Lynch." Draco agreed. Then his eyes widened, and he looked around, "Be back in one second."  
  
Ginny watched Draco run to a small stall that was selling Wizarding trinkets. He returned, and shoved a small model of a phoenix into her hands, "Happy birthday Weasley."  
  
"You actually remembered?" She asked, astonished. She had actually forgotten herself.  
  
"Of course." Ginny smiled, and kissed him lightly on the lips. It felt nice to be able to do that again.  
  
"Who do you prefer out of me, Riddle and Lynch?" Draco asked in between kisses.  
  
"Hadn't really though about it." She replied.  
  
"Well, think about it now." He said.  
  
"Ok, but it'll take a while." Ginny told him.  
  
"I'll ask you again later." He assured her.  
  
"You'll forget."  
  
III

Thanks to...  
  
Red-Devil15: Not so much going on in the chapter. Just a few big things.  
  
Silver-Night2: And is my story any good? I'd still like a new name.  
  
Moose: No! Blaise is such a girl's name. Grrr. Oh well, I guess this fic is AU. Does that mean I can make my characters do whatever I want?  
  
Damia - Queen of the Gypsi's: Thanks for the advice. Plenty of Hermione in the Chapter!  
  
Kittybro: I hope they do too, but they're getting out of control!  
  
Magic Crystal Rose: Hope this answers some of your question! If not...you'll have to wait to find out.  
  
AquariusNight: Thanks for the praise! feels really proud And thanks for the advice on the name. I may actually do that. If I can be bothered. I'm truly lazy.  
  
Taika: More shocks abound this chapter! Will Ron and Hermione ever get back together? Will Draco and Ginny ever fall in love? Will I ever finish this fic?  
  
Readingfreak742: And after you say that I take forever to update. I hope you haven't lost interest!  
  
Keep on reviewing!


	21. Christmas Ball

A.N. I'm so bad at updating! I'm sorry! cries We're nearing the end, don't loose faith in me!

III

The Christmas Ball

III

It had been several days since Ginny and Draco had returned from France. They were staying in a small Wizarding Inn in Sheffield, passing the days in the local library, looking desperately for a cure.

"Anything?" Draco asked after about an hour of silence.

"No." Ginny sighed, "I mean, if I was being possessed, we could work this out, but this isn't possession."

"Maybe we should look under haunting." Draco suggested.

"Or mental illness." Tom added in a faux helpful voice.

"Don't be stupid." Ginny muttered, and then added when Draco looked at her with an offended expression, "Tom. Not you."

"Oh." Draco shrugged, and then turned back to his book.

After several hours of fruitless searching, they headed back to the Inn, where Fawkes waited for them. The bird greeted them with a squawk when they entered the door, and Ginny smiled affectionately at it.

"Hi Fawkes." She whispered, "How are you today?"

"There's no point talking to it. It doesn't speak English." Draco muttered.

"He understands though." Ginny reminded him, "And he and Dumbledore speak. Well, communicate. So I want Dumbledore to know that I've been courteous to his companion."

"Fine, fine, you go right ahead and talk to the bird." He shook his head dismissively, and then sat on his bed, "So, are we going?"

"Only if you want to." She replied nervously. She pulled out the letter she had been carrying with her for the last few days, "He said that it'd be nice if I could come, but that he'd understand if I couldn't."

They were discussing Aiden Lynch's Christmas party which they had been invited to. Well, Ginny had been invited to.

"Yeah, being pursued by Death Eaters can really put a cramp on your social life." Draco rolled his eyes, "Do you want to go? I know you and Aiden have a thing going on, I'm not going to stand in the way of that."

"Malfoy, _we_ have a thing going on." She reminded him, "I like the thing we have going on. I like you."

"But you want to go to the party."

"With you. Look…this party…well, its normal." She sat down next to him, "When was the last time either of us did anything normal?"

"Too long ago." He agreed, "But…Lynch."

"He's nice." Ginny admitted, "And I might have a slight crush on him, but it's nothing, just silliness. I mean, he thinks I'm eighteen or something, maybe even nineteen. If we ever live through this, he won't be very pleased to work out that I've just turned sixteen. It's not serious."

"And what we have is?" Draco laughed, "Weasley…let's go to the party. It might even be fun."

Ginny laughed as well, and kissed him lightly on the cheek. Then she grabbed her bag and ran into the bathroom.

"What are you doing?" Draco called.

"Getting ready for the party!" She answered.

"But it's not for another few hours." He reminded her.

"Only a few hours!" She exclaimed from behind the door, "Ahh!"

III

Ginny stood in front of the mirror, looking at herself. She had changed into the bluish purple dress robes Draco had bought her at the beginning of their "adventure", and was admiring the material.

"Are you ready yet?" Draco called from outside the bathroom, and Ginny sighed.

"Yeah." She called back, but didn't move away from the mirror. She had arranged her black tresses into an elegant semi-bun at the top of her head, with a good deal of hair still cascading down her shoulders.

"Then why are you just standing there?" Ginny jumped, and looked around. Draco had managed to open the door without her hearing, and was now leaning against the doorway.

"Just…looking." She answered.

"And you call me vain." He muttered, parting from the doorway and coming to stand next to her.

"No I don't." She replied, frowning, "Besides, it's not exactly like this is my body."

"Yeah." Draco agreed, "Not as pretty."

His hand reached up and touched her hair. She closed her eyes for a moment, just enjoying the feel of his fingers just above her shoulder, but then opened them and turned to look at him. He wore deep green dress robes, and his typical smirk. It looked strange on his face, but over the weeks Ginny had become used to it. They had switched between the two faces so many times now that when Ginny conjured an image of Draco into her mind, it was just as likely to be the tall dark haired boy as it was to be the real Draco.

"You look nice." She said eventually.

"Yeah, being someone else seems to suit me." He grinned, "Come on, we should get going."

III

Molly Weasley carefully placed the star at the top of the Christmas tree, while Fred and George covered it with bobbles and tinsel.

"Looking good boys!" She called down, and they grinned up at her. In the kitchen Charlie was keeping an eye on the roast for her, and Bill was setting the table for Christmas Eve dinner. Ron, Harry and Hermione were off somewhere, supposedly cleaning the house, although Molly suspected that they were searching for the hidden presents. Arthur and Percy were still at work, and weren't expected back for another hour or so.

"Mum!" Bill called, "How many of us are there?"

"I've told you already dear, ten!" She called back, wobbling slightly on the stool she was standing on. Fred darted forward and grabbed her arm, and she smiled warmly at him, "Thank you dear."

"It's ok mum." He told her, turning back to the decorating.

"What are those strange coloured crackers?" Molly asked suspiciously, pointing, "I'm sure I didn't buy those."

"Um, they're…uh…" George stuttered, "Well, you see…"

"Get rid of them." She ordered, "I don't want any two headed lizards crawling around my house, or whatever will pop out of those things."

"After I just saved your life mum?" Fred said, looking hurt.

"Get rid of them." She repeated. The twins sighed, shaking their heads and pulling off their specially made crackers.

"Bill, that's eleven plates!" Came a call from the kitchen. Charlie had noticed that Bill had got the number of plates wrong again, "How the hell do you work for a bank when you can't count?"

"Shut it little brother." Bill scolded, "Look, I counted it up in my head, and there are eleven of us. Mum and dad, you and me, Fred and George, Percy and Ron, Harry and Hermione and Gi…"

There was a silence where he realised his mistake. Molly froze, and the twin's heads snapped towards her. No one said a word, but those not in the kitchen could imagine the look on Bill and Charlie's faces.

"And Remus." Bill finished off lamely, "Isn't Remus coming tonight?"

"No dear." Molly called into the kitchen, "He's coming tomorrow."

"Ah, sorry, my mistake." There was a brief silence before Ron, Harry and Hermione burst into the living room. Seeing the sombre look on everyone's faces, Ron blanched.

"What? Has something happened?" He asked, his voice nervous.

"No dear, nothing's happened." Molly reassured him sadly.

"You sure?" Harry asked, glancing around.

"Yes, I'm sure." She smiled weakly.

"I'll go make you some tea." Fred said, hurrying into the kitchen.

"Thank you." She watched him go, before turning back to the three friends, "So, how's the cleaning going?"

"The cleaning?" Ron asked, confused.

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed, "Oh, yes, the cleaning… Um….we took a brief break."

"We'll get right back to it." Harry assured her.

"Yeah, yeah…" Ron looked distracted. He reached down and picked up one of the crackers Molly had made the twins remove from the tree. "Hey mum? Can I pull one, please?"

"Ron, no-!" But it was too late; Ron had already grasped each end and pulled firmly. There was an almighty crack, and the room was suddenly filled with soot. Something large and scaly landed on the floor and slithered under the carpet.

"Who pulled a Creepy Crawly Cracker?" Fred asked, running into the living room looking excited.

"FRED! GEORGE!" Molly screamed.

III

They arrived, like most the guests, fashionably late. Ginny had wanted to go as early as possible, but Draco had insisted they waited. On arrival they were given masks to wear, which would be removed at midnight. Ginny was delighted with the phoenix mask she received, while Draco refused to wear the unicorn mask he was given, and insisted that they give him a dragon one. After about five minutes of Draco being stubborn they finally gave in, and Draco was given an Antipodean Opaleye dragon mask.

"You can't let the help walk all over you." He informed her helpfully, but she just shook her head.

"Malfoy, that was embarrassing." She hissed.

"Now, now, my dear Emily." He scorned playfully, "I do believe my name is Nathaniel."

"I reserve all rights to hate you." She sniped.

They moved into the hall in which the dance was being held. Real fairies lined the walls, chattering to themselves, occasionally swooping down at the dancers, but never actually touching them. The entire hall was decked in white, with icicles hanging from the ceiling.

"I hope they don't drip." Draco said, looking up at them, "They'll ruin my hair."

"Ah, the vanity of teenage boys." She sighed, and he poked her, a little too hard, in the side.

"Watch it Weasley." He warned, "Those shoes look awfully hard to walk in, you wouldn't want to have a little 'accident' in front of Lynch, would you?"

"You wouldn't dare." She said loftily.

"You wanna bet?"

They moved onto the dance floor and began to dance, but only moments later someone tapped Draco lightly on the shoulder. Turning round, Draco found himself looking into the eyes of Aiden Lynch.

"Lynch." He nodded a greeting.

"Nathaniel, good to see you, glad you could make it." He said in his cheery lilting voice, and then turned to Ginny and said much more sincerely "And it's good to see you too Emily."

"Hello Aiden." Ginny smiled, and held her hand out to shake his. Instead he took it to his lips and kissed her hand gently. Draco scowled and looked away.

"I'm sure, Nathaniel, that there are many young women here who would love to dance with you." Aiden told him, with a slight wink, "So I'm sure you won't mind if I steal your cousin away for just a little bit."

"I suppose." Draco said reluctantly. Aiden took Ginny's hands, and led her into the dance floor. Over Aiden's shoulder Ginny saw Draco tap on the shoulder of a small red haired girl, and offer his hand to her. She felt her stomach give a flip of jealousy when the red haired girl took it, and they began to dance.

III

Claudius Huntley was not happy. He had spent the last few weeks following Aiden Lynch's every move, and still he had found out nothing. Ever since Lynch had been seen speaking to the Vessel in Russia he had been under constant surveillance. It would have been much easier if he had been able to read the bloody man's owls, but as a celebrity he had been able to afford the best protection spells for his birds. So now Huntley was out stalking a celebrity for the Dark Lord on Christmas Eve.

But things were starting to look up. Two dark haired youths had walked in; fitting the vessel and her companion's description, and the girl was now dancing with Lynch.

He watched as Lynch brought her over to the buffet table and handed her a drink, and smiled to himself.

"That's right girly, drink up." He muttered under his breath, "Drink as much as you want. And when you finally need to go toilet…that's when I'll have you."

"Is he talking to himself?" He heard someone whisper near by. Blushing, he shuffled away, towards the buffet table, where he shovelled food into his pockets. If he was going to be forced to work on Christmas Eve, he was going to be compensated.

III

"It looks like Nathaniel's having fun." Aiden noted as he and Ginny headed back onto the dance floor.

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked.

"Well, that's the third girl he's danced with since he got here. I think they're queuing up for him."

"Oh are they?" Ginny said, a little too tartly. Aiden looked at her strangely, before laughing.

"You two are protective of each other, aren't you?" He said, almost affectionately.

"Well…we have a lot to protect each other from." She reminded him, and he nodded.

"You do, you do." He sighed, and then offered her his hand, "Shall we dance?"

"I'd love too." Ginny smiled, taking his hand.

III

Harry, Ron and Hermione had finally finished cleaning up the house, and collapsed, exhausted in their beds.

"It's difficult." Ron said, out of the blue.

"What is?" Harry asked, lifting up his head.

"Every time I'm in the same room as my parents I want to tell them that Ginny's not dead." He explained, "It's getting difficult not to shout it out."

"Why can't we tell them?" Harry asked, "I was thinking about it all the time at Remus's, and I really don't get why we can't tell them."

"Well, for one thing, we'd have to tell them how we know." Hermione snapped, "I think Blaise might object to us putting her dad in prison, don't you? If we tell Ron's parents that Blaise's dad has been experimenting on Ginny, how do you think they'll react? And we'd also have to tell them all about Riddle, and we have no idea what they'll do about that. For all we know, they could throw Ginny to the Dementors."

"They wouldn't!" Ron exclaimed.

"They might." Hermione said darkly, "To get rid of Tom Riddle…You never know what they'll do."

"Who are 'they' Hermione?" Harry asked.

"The Ministry of course!" Hermione told him, "Those bunch of bigots. They think they're so wise…They'll consider Ginny a threat."

"So we're gonna look for her by ourselves?" Ron looked sceptical.

"I don't see why not." Hermione shrugged, "We've done some amazing things before, haven't we? I mean, we got past the teachers best defences when we were eleven! We're sixteen now, we can find Ginny."

"Yeah, yeah, I suppose we can." Ron agreed, nodding.

They sat quietly for a while, before Harry suddenly sat up.

"What's up?" Ron asked, confused.

"I think…" Harry looked confused, "I think I might miss Luna a bit."

There was a shocked silence, and Hermione's eyes bulged.

"Harry, I know we used to see a lot of her, but don't you think we may have seen a little too much of her?" The young Witch asked.

"Well, I dunno." He shrugged, "She was better friends with Ginny and Neville, but she was our friend too, and after Neville died and Ginny disappeared, we dumped her. I feel bad, I guess…"

"Well…what do you think Ron?" Hermione enquired.

"I think you're mad." Ron replied simply, "But probably right."

There was a silence after that. None of them said anything, but they all felt quite a bit better about themselves.

III

She wasn't trying to make him jealous. So it was really quite unfair that he was trying to make her jealous. And he was deliberately going for red heads. It was just plain cruel really. Then he disentangled himself with his latest partner, and looking her straight in the eye, walked out of the room. She fidgeted. She tried to amuse herself. She tried to talk to Aiden. But eventually…

"I'll be right back." Ginny assured Aiden, "Don't worry."

She made her way over to the door Draco had walked through, and, quickly checking to see if anyone was watching, followed him through it.

She should have checked harder.

Claudius Huntley followed.

III

Thanks to:

Silvinarrow- A…A…sequel? You mean more of this never ending story…? dies

Thedragonflier666-Hurrying up!

FireRoseRed-And Aiden, never forget Aiden…that girl gets ALL the guys.

Red-Devil15-Ah, the killing of non-living characters…

Damia - Queen of the Gypsi's-I like people making up their own mind about the way I write characters. Makes it more interesting.

Magic Crystal Rose-Yay for motivation!

TLSlark-Here's your update!

readingfreak742-It's so fun inflicting pain on characters… Now it's taking me forever to update :P

Ohepelss Oramtnci-Things always look like they're going better…until I decide to be evil :D

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed! I now have 100 reviews! W00p w00p!


End file.
